





HIPPO REGIUS 


FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 
THE ARAB CONQUEST 


A DISSERTATION 
PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 


By 
i 
HOLMES VAN MATER DENNIS 3d. 


PRINCETON 
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 
1924 


Accepted by the Department of Classics, June 1923 





ERRATA 


Preface, 1. 6: for from read form 

p. 18, note 11,1. 5: after jargon insert parlé 
p. 22, note 3: for “regius” read Regius 

p. 59, note 19: for July + read July — 

p. 71, 1.8: for ‘A Silma read Ad Silma 





PREFACE 


This dissertation, which is an attempt to collect in one ac- 
count and to evaluate the broken and scattered notices of the 
history of Hippo Regius, was sugested to me by Dean A. F. 
West and has been written under his suggestive and helpful 
direction. In it I have endeavored to bring together in a usable 
from what is known or may be reasonably conjectured about 
Hippo Regius in antiquity. In a work of this kind it has been 
impossible to attain to completeness of treatment and I have 
omitted certain subjects altogether—among them the archaeology 
of the place which could be satisfactorily treated only by one on 
the ground and the relation of St. Augustine to his episcopal 
city which I hope to treat elsewhere. 

I take this opportunity of acknowledging my thanks also to Pro- 
fessor F. F. Abbott for help in planning the work; to Professor | 
D. R. Stuart for constant help on many vexatious points ; and to 
Professors J. H. Westcott and A. C. Johnson for help in regard 
to certain technical points. Mr. M. V. Kern of Princeton Univer- 
sity has given me much valuable help in revising the translations 
and checking the references, and Mr. H. S. Leach, of the Uni- 
versity Library, has been unfailingly helpful in assisting me to 
locate obscure books and in borrowing for me books which were 
not in the Princeton Library. I wish also to thank Professor 
A. M. Harmon of Yale University for help in connection with 
the passages from En Noweiri. 

My indebtedness to the works of modern scholars will be 
made clear by an examination of the footnotes and of the biblio- 
graphy but I wish to call attention to my particular indebtedness 
to the very important publications of M. Stéphane Gsell. There 
are two books which I should have particularly liked to consult 
but which I have been unable to procure. They are: Niel, Bone 
et ses environs, and Papier, Lettres sur Hippone. 


Princeton, N. J. H. V. M. Dennis 3d. 





PAB OFS CONTENTS 


PREFACE 
I. SITUATION AND TOPOGRAPHY 


II. CLIMATE, Propucts, AND NATURAL RESOURCES 
III. EtTHNoLocy 
IV. LANGUAGE 
V. NAME AND FOUNDATION 
VI. ProvincraAL STATUS 
VII. MunicrpaL STATUS AND GOVERNMENT 
VIII. Trrritor1uM AND IMPERIAL DoMAINS 
IX. DI0ckEsE 
X. BIsHOPS 
XI. CouNcILs 
XII. Muritary History 


XIII. THe DEstructTIon oF Hippo REGIUS AND THE 
FOUNDATION OF BONA 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 
1. SOURCES 


11. MopERN Works 


INDEX 


68 


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( 





SITUATION AND TOPOGRAPHY 


That part of the world which is known as “North Africa” ex- 
tends westward from the Lesser Syrtis to the Atlantic and 
southward from the Mediterranean to the Sahara. Its surface is 
varied, consisting of sea-coast, table-land, and mountains. The 
coastal region consists of a narrow strip of varying width. Back 
of it are a range of mountains, a lofty plateau, and then another 
range of mountains, some of which rise to a height of over 
10,000 feet. To the south the land again slopes away to the 
Sahara Desert. 

In the eastern part of this territory, about 125 miles west of 
the site of Carthage, stands the city of Bona near the mouth of 
the river Seybouse.* Its latitude and longitude are approximate- 
ly 37°N. and 8° E. (Greenwich). 

A little more than a mile to the southwest of the modern city 
lie the ruins of Hippo Regius.* This city, best known as the 
episcopal seat of St. Augustine, had a varied history which 
probably extended over a period of nearly 2,000 years. It was 
founded by the Phenicians, or Carthaginians, and was destroyed 
or abandoned during the Middle Ages. 

It was built in a plain dominated by two hills, one of which 
rising to a height of about 175 feet is known as the “Hill of St. 
Augustine,’ while the other, which is 110 feet high, is called 
the “Gharf el Artran.’’* 

The question of the location of the ancient mouth of the 


1 For a convenient recent large-scale map see The Daily Telegraph 
Victory Atlas, pp. 191-102. 

2 The Geographer of Ravenna (in Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, 
ed. Pinder & Parthey, p. 152) mentions the Ubus flumen among the 
rivers of Numidia and the Tabula Peutingeriana places its mouth five 
miles east of Hippo Regius. It is the only river of importance mentioned 
near Hippo Regius. Tissot, Géographie de la province romaine d’Afrique, 
I. p. 45, says that the word “Seybouse” is a compound made up of the 
Arabic word Sif (river) and Ubus, the name of the river. The identifica- 
tion of the Seybouse with the Ubus is, therefore, practically certain. It 
flows through a plain which marks a distinct break in the Lesser Atlas 
(Gsell, Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord, I. p. 5). 

3 Gsell, Atlas archéologique de l Algérie, Texte, IX. no. 59. 

ibid. Texte, IX. no. 59. 


Prd 


Seybouse in relation to the site of the city presents the follow- 
ing difficulty ; El Békri, who lived in the eleventh century, says: 
“Elle (Hippo Regius) est située----sur une colline----qui do- 
mine la ville de Sebous’”® and the ruins are today near the river 
Seybouse, but the Tabula Peutingeriana places the mouth of this 
river about five miles to the east of Hippo Regius. The most 
probable explanation of this problem is the one accepted by 
Gsell. It is that the Lranch of the Seybouse, known as “El 
Khelidj,” marks the earlier course of the Seybouse in its lower 
reaches and that the change of the main stream to the present 
course occurred some time prior to the eleventh century. The 
time and cause of this change are unknown. It is probable that 
until this change took place the sea reached farther inland 
than it does at present and that the harbor was not far from the 
“Gharf el Artran.” If this was the case, it was well sheltered 
from west and north-west winds, but not from east winds.® 

Whether this town was a new foundation, or merely a re- 
foundation of an earlier Libyan settlement, is not known, but its 
suitability for defense, its harbor, and its location are in them- 
selves sufficient to account for its foundation and long-continued 
existence. 

Gsell, who apparently bases his opinion on two passages from 
St. Augustine, believes that the place was insalubrious. His 
opinion is probably correct.” 

The reader who is interested in the topography of this place is 
referred to Gsell’s Atlas archéologique de l Algérie, but mention 
must here be made of the roads which passed through or radi- 
ated from it, as they furnish an indication of its commercial 
importance. Another indication of its wealth and importance is 
found in the fact that gladiatorial shows were given there.® 

Under the Roman Empire North Africa was covered with a 


5 Description de l Afrique Septentrionale (tr. de Slane, Journal Asia- 
tique, 1850, p. 72). There are two possible explanations of the expression 
la ville de Sebous; either that El Békri mistook the name of the river 
for that of a village, or that an unimportant village grew up near the 
mouth of the river and took its name from the river. See The Geographer 
of Ravenna (in Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, ed. Pinder & Par- 
they, pp. 347-8; p. 148?) ; also Guido (ibid. p. 518). 

6 Gsell, Atlas, Texte, IX. p. 5 and no. 180. 

7 ibid. Texte, IX. p. 5; Aug. Epist. 118.34; 126. 4; see also El Békri 
(tr. de Slane, Journal Asiatique, 1859, p. 73). 

8 Gsell, Inscriptions Latines de l’Algérie, I. nos. 13; 95; 96. 


C2] 


complicated net-work of roads. For example; from Cirta roads 
led to Rusicade, Milevum, Tipasa, and Hippo Regius, while from 
Hippo Regius other roads led to Rusicade, Tipasa, Simittu, and 
Carthage.® This example 1s typical of other North African cities 
and shows clearly how closely the different parts of the country 
were connected for both commercial and military operations. 

Seven or possibly eight main roads led from Hippo Regius to 
coast and inland towns. It is often impossible to trace accurately 
the routes which they followed, but, as it is our purpose merely 
to point out the extent and importance of the road-system which 
converged on the town, it makes little difference whether, for 
example, the roads which led to Tipasa and to Thagaste fol- 
lowed the same course for part of the way or diverged im- 
mediately after leaving the city. The brief enumeration of the 
various roads which follows is made with such considerations in 
mind.*° 

Two routes led from Hippo Regius to Rusicade and points 
west, the one around the coast through Tacatua, the other by 
the shorter inland route. Two led east to Carthage, the shorter 
through Tuniza, Tabraca, Hippo Diarrhytus, and Utica, the 
longer through Simittu, Bulla Regia, and Thuburbo Minus. 
Three led into the hinterland, one to the south-west to Cirta, 
and two to the south-east to Sicca Veneria, the one through 
Tipasa, the other through Thagaste. 

In addition to these routes, which are indicated by the Tabula 
Peutingeriana and the [tinerartum Antonini, Gsell believes that 
there was another which ran toward the West “par la vallée des 
Kharéza et le N. du lac Fetzara” and rejoined the coast road at 
Paratianis."? 

When it is remembered that Hippo Regius was one of the 
better ports on the northern coast of Africa and that the coun- 
try lying behind it was a well-favored section of one of the 
richest of the Roman Provinces, the reason for these many roads 
will be readily seen and the importance of the city will be ap- 
parent. 


9 Tab. Peut. 
10 See Note A which follows this section. 
11 Gsell, Atlas, Texte, IX. p. Io. 


Saul 


NOTE A. THE ROADS ENTERING HIPPO REGIUS 


The following table will give a more detailed idea of the 
Roman roads which entered Hippo Regius than that given in 
the preceding section. 


ROUTE No. 1. Coast road from Hippo Regius to Rusicade 
and west. 


Tabula Peutingeriana. tinerarium Antonini. 
Hyppone Regio Hippone regio colonia 
no 32 
Sublucu Sullucco 
18 Ze 
Tacatua Tacatua 
7 
Muharur 18 
9 | 
Zaca 
Zz 
Culucitani Cullicitanis 
16 18 
Paratianis Paratianis 
25 25 
Rusicade Colonia Rusicade 
II4 115 =Total in Roman miles. 


ROUTE No. 2. Inland road from Hippo Regius to Rusicade 
and west. 
Tabula Peutingeriana. 
Hyppone Regio 
15 
Ad plumbaria 
17 
Nedibus 
44 
Rusicade Colonia 


76 =Total in Roman miles. 


es, ag 


ROUTE No. 3. Coast road from Hippo Regius to Carthage. 


Tabula Peutingeriana. 
Hyppone Regio 
5 
Ubus flumen 
IO 
Armoniacum flumen 
30 
Tuniza 
24 
Tabraca 
60 
Ipponte diarito 
20 
Tunisa 
htLO 
Memblone 
Utica Colonia 
6 
Gallum Gallinatium 
IS 


Carthagine colonia 


186 


Itinerarium Antonini 
Hippone regio colonia 


32 


Ad Dianam 
1 


Tuniza 
24 
Tabraca 
60 
Hippone Zarito 
20 
Tuna 
IO 
Membro 
6 
Utica 
12 
Ad Gallum gallinacium 
T5 
Carthagine 





194 = Total in Roman miles. 


ROUTE No. 4. Inland road from Hippo Regius to Carthage. 


Tabula Peutingeriana. 
Hyppone Regio 
50 
Odiana 
25 
Ad Aquas 


Simitu Colonia 


Bulla Regia 
12 ne 
Ad Silma ma 
12 
Armascla fl. 
6 
Novis Aquilianis 
9 
Picus} =16 
7 
Vico Augusti 
7 
Teglata 
13 == 30 
Elefantaria 
IO 
Clucar 
16 
Thuburbominus 
$ 
Thuraria 
15 
Cicisa 
19 
Carthagine colon. 


209 


Itinerarium Antonini. 
Hippone regio 


50 
Onellaba 


25 
Ad Aquas 


5 


Simittu colonia? 


7 
Bulla regia 


=3l 
24 


Novis Aquilianis 


16 


Vico August 


30 


Cluacaria 


15 | 
Thuburbo minus 


28 


Cigisa 
18 
Carthagine 


218 =Total in Roman miles. 


1 New bridge built by Trajan in 112, C.J.L. VIII. no. 10117. 


[04 


ROUTE No. 5. From Hippo Regius to the south-western 
hinterland. 








Tabula Peutingeriana. Itinerarium Antonini. 
Hyppone Regio Hippone regio 
a8 25 
Ad villam Servilianam Ad Villam Servilianam 
T5 T5 
Aquis Thibilitanis Aquis Tibilitanis 
o4 54 
Cirta colonia Gitta. 
99 94 =Total in Roman miles. 


ROUTE No. 6. From Hippo Regius to the south-east. 


Tabula Peutimgeriana. 
Hyppone Regio 
25 
Vico Iuliani 
18 
Tipasa 
12 
Ad molas 
6 
Vasidice 
5 


Thacora 


5 
Gegetu 


Naraggara 
12 
Sicca Veneria 


83 =Total in Roman miles. 


Beal 


ROUTE No. 7. From Hippo Regius to the south-east. 


Itinerarium Antonini. 
Hippone regio 
53 
Tagaste 
25 
Naraggara 
32 


Sicca Veneria 





110 =Total in Roman miles. 


ROUTE No. 8. From Hippo Regius to the west. 


For this route see page 5 above, and Gsell, Atlas, Texte, IX. 
p. 10. 


cs] 


CLIMATE, PRODUCTS, AND NATURAL RESOURCES 


An account of Hippo Regius would be incomplete unless it 
contained some reference to the climate and to the products 
and natural resources of the surrounding country. In this work, 
however, it is not necessary to treat these subjects comprehen- 
sively. Accordingly, in the following paragraphs reference will 
be made to an extended treatment of the climate and of the 
fauna and flora of North Africa and certain points of special 
interest in regard to Hippo Regius will be noticed in detail. 

In his Histoire ancienne de l Afrique du Nord, Gsell has de- 
voted a long chapter to the subject of climate.t He discusses 
the present climate, the climate in pre-historic times, and then, 
after a long and carefully documented argument in regard to the 
climate in historical antiquity, concludes as follows: 

“As for North Africa properly so-called, it enjoyed a cli- 
mate if not like, at least very analogous to, the present climate. 
Drought was usual in the summer, and sometimes lasted during 
the whole year. The rains were irregular and often torrential ; 
they were in general much less abundant in the interior of the 
country than in the neighborhood of the Atlantic and of the 
Mediterranean—that is from the Strait of Gibraltar to Cape 
Bon. It is possible that this country may have been a little 
moister than today; in lack of proof one may invoke certain 
indications which are not without value. But, to put it briefly, 
if the climate of Barbary has changed since the Roman period, it 
is only to a very slight extent.’ 

In view of Gsell’s statement the following figures will be of 
interest. The annual rainfall at Bona is approximately 29 inches,’ 
nearly double that of Athens, which is approximately 15.9 in- 
ches.* In regard to the temperature of the coastal districts Gsell 
says: “It is rare that the thermometer goes below freezing, at 
least during the day, and that it mounts above 30 degrees centi- 
grade (86 degrees Fahrenheit).’> The lowest average tempera- 


1]. pp. 40-90. 
2 ibid. I. p. 90. 
8 ibid. I. p. 48. 
4World Almanac (1923), p. 69. 
5 Hist. I. p. 41. 
C9] 


ture at Athens for a month is 46 degrees Fahrenheit (January) 
and the highest is 81 (July).° 

The wealth of North Africa in antiquity is almost proverbial. 
In his Richesse minérale de l Algérie, Fournel has a chapter on 
Bona and its environs.’ It is certain that iron was mined near 
there in the Middle Ages ;8 and if Fournel is right, it was first 
mined there by the Vandals.° Marble was probably the chief min- 
eral product in Roman times.*° 

The fauna of North Africa are discussed by Gsell in his 
Histoire ancienne de l Afrique du Nord.** It may be of interest 
to remark in passing that, whereas elephants were common in 
early times, they disappeared during the first centuries of the 
Christian era and that, although camels are now very common, 
the first mention of them in North Africa is from the time of 
Julius Caesar and that they apparently were not used extensive- 
ly until much later.’” 

The flora and agriculture of this part of the world are de- 
scribed by Gsell in numerous passages in his Histoire.\* The 
following products were cultivated: wheat; barley; the vine; 
various fruits, especially olives, figs, and pomegranates; al- 
monds; walnuts; dates; and various vegetables.1* 

The following passages from ancient and medieval writers 
bear particularly upon the wealth and products of Hippo Regius. 

Livy says :7° “Gaius Laelius had arrived at Hippo Regius by 
night and had at the break of day led forth his soldiers and 
naval allies ad populandum agrum----he (later) set sail from 
Hippo Regius with his ships loaded with booty.” From this 
passage it is apparent that the city and the circumjacent country 
were rich at the time of the second Punic War. 

El Békri says :*° “The environs (of Hippo Regius) are very 

8 World Almanac (1923), p. 60. 

71. pp. 30-II0. 

8 Ibn Haucal, Description de l'Afrique (tr. de Slane, Journal Asiatique, 
1842, pp. 181 ff.) ; Géographie d’Aboulféda (tr. Reinaud, Tome II, lére 
partie [Paris, 1848] p. 194). 

9 Richesse, I. pp. 56-58. 

10 ibid. I. pp. 35 ff. 

11], pp. 100-137; 216-234. 

12 ibid. I. pp. 74-80; 59-61. 

13]. pp. 137-176; 234-239; IV. pp. 1-52. 

14ibid. IV. pp. 9-37. See, however, Aug. Serm. 46. 39. 

15 xxIx. 3. 7 through 5. I. 


x 


16 tr. de Slane, Journal Asiatique, 1859, pp. 72-73. 


[ 10 ] 


rich in fruits and cereals.----To the west of the city (Bona) 
is a stream which waters the gardens and makes of that locality 
a pleasure-ground.----Meat, milk, fish, and honey are found 
there in great abundance. Beef is consumed in large quantities.” 

Ibn Haucal says:1* “The gardens of the environs (of Bona) 
produce a great amount of fruit and still more 1s brought from 
the surrounding country. At all times wheat and barley are, one 
might say, a drug on the market.’’ He goes on to say that the 
neighboring regions produce iron, flax, sheep, cattle, camels, 
horses, and other valuable commodities. 

And finally Leo Africanus, who lived in the sixteenth century, 
says:1® “It is called----Beld Elhuneb, that is the City of the 
Jujubes, on account of the great abundance of that fruit which 
is thereabouts----its territory has very good pasturage and 
is inhabited----it is tilled and there are there many cows, 
beeves, and sheep.”’ Further on he speaks of butter and coral 
as being among the products of the region. 

Although but one of these passages referring to the richness 
of the country surrounding Hippo comes from classical times, it 
seems reasonable to conclude from them and from the general 
conditions which obtained in North Africa in antiquity that at 
least after the end of the third century before Christ, the 
country surrounding Hippo Regius was rich in the increase of 
the soil and of the flock and herd. In addition to these products 
the quarrying of marble in the vicinity may have heightened the 
prosperity of this city. 


17 Tr, de Slane, Journal Asiatique, 1842, p. 182. See also Géographie 
d’Aboulféda (tr. Reinaud, Tome II, 1ére partie [Paris, 1848] p. 194). 

18 Della Descrittione Dell? Africa (in Ramusio, Navigationi et Viaggi, 
I. p. 65 [fourth edition]—incorrectly numbered p. 71). 


Bae 


ETHNOLOGY 


An account of those peoples who, from the beginning of 
history until the Arab Conquest, inhabited that tract of country 
in which Hippo Regits was situated, should begin with a study 
of the races of North Africa.t The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, 
and the other races, more or less remote from the coastal district 
lying between Cyrenaica and the Pillars, need not enter into the 
discussion. The races with which we are concerned may be 
conveniently divided into two groups; the first composed of 
those already there at the dawn of history, the second of those 
who came within historical times. The meager and unsatisfac- 
tory notices in Greek and Roman authors concerning the races 
there before historical times may be supplemented by an exam- 
ination of the representations of these people on the walls of 
tombs and of temples and by a study of skeletons and skulls 
and of the present inhabitants of Algeria and the neighboring 
regions. As a result of such examination and study modern 
scholars seem to be agreed that those who are today known as 
the Berbers have from time immemorial formed the basis of 
the population, far outnumbering all the other elements com- 
bined, and have remained practically unaffected by the succes- 
sive waves of traders, colonists, invaders, and conquerors who 
have swept over their native land.? 

A final determination of whether these Berbers are of pure 
stock or of mixed, whether they are indigenous, and, if not, whence 
they came, would depend on evidence which is now and prob- 
ably always will be lacking. Yet the classical texts which treat 
of this subject, although obviously not to be taken at their face 
value and although dismissed by Gsell as outside the domain 
of history,® tend to confirm the conclusions of anthropologists, 
linguists, and archaeologists that the Berbers are closely related 
to the peoples of Southern Europe and North Africa, being the 


1 For a fuller general discussion of this subject and an abundance of 
references to special literature see Gsell, Hist. I. pp. 275-308; 327-357; 
also, IV. pp. 171 ff. 

2 ibid. I. p. 275. 

8 ibid. I. p. 327. 


[ 12] 


product, as some scholars think, of a mixture of these two 
stocks.‘ 

Herodotus® says that North Africa was inhabited by four 
nations, no more; that two of these—the Libyans and the 
Ethiopians—were autochthonous ; and two—the Phenicians and 
the Greeks—were not. The Libyans are now represented by the 
Berbers and of the other nations mentioned only the Phenicians 
seem to have played an important role in Numidia. 

Sallust® gives what purports to be an account of “what men 
originally held Africa.” He says it was translated to him from 
the Punic books of King Hiempsal and wasbelieved by the natives 
but was different from the generally accepted account. Though 
not commonly accepted in the first century B.C., it seems to have 
gained in favor, for it persisted at least till the time of Isidore 
of Seville who repeats essentially the same story as Sallust but 
with many strange additions." 

Sallust’s account is, in brief, as follows: that at first the 
Getulians and Libyans held Africa, but after Hercules died in 
Spain his army broke up and the Medes, Persians, and Armen- 
ians crossed the Straits; that the Persians lived intra oceanum 
magis, gradually intermarried with the Getulians, and from their 
wandering life called themselves Nomades; that the buildings 
of the rural Numidians which they call mapalia still recall by 
their form the boats under which the Persians first lived after 
landing; that the Libyans corrupted the name of the Medes to 
Mauri; that the Persians flourished; and that their descendants 
emigrated to Numidia, took it, and assimilated the conquered. 

From the passages in Herodotus and Sallust it appears that 
there was a tradition that in prehistoric times a race or races of 
conquerors had come from Europe and been fused with the 
aboriginal Libyans. Whether or not this be true, this much only 
seems certain—that one race, so far as there is any reasonable 
record or tradition, has within historic times always formed the 
bulk of the population of the sea-coast and the nearer hinterland 


4 Gsell, Hist. I. p. 356; Piquet, Les civilisations de l Afrique du Nord, 
pp. 3 ff. 

5 Iv. 197. 

8 Jug. 17-19. 

7 Etymologiae, 1x. 115 ff. 

8 An interesting and plausible attempt to explain Sallust’s story is 
given by Boissier, Roman Africa (tr.), pp. 3 ff. 


a Bc ed 


of these regions and that the Numidians were a division of this 
race.° 

The following picture, a mosaic made up of pieces gath- 
ered from sources differing widely in time, place, and value, 
while incomplete and showing features which never actually 
existed side by side, will help to give an idea of what manner 
of people the ancient Berbers were.*° 

They were lean and squalid.’ There were blonds’* as in 
modern times, but the population was for the most part dark.** 
They used ornaments of gold, plaited their hair, trimmed their 
beards, cleaned their teeth, and pared their finger nails.1* They 
were very healthy and long-lived,® used little or no wine, and 
subsisted on the coarsest and most primitive food, mainly on 
grain or vegetables.1® Their dwellings were stuffy huts and their 
couch the ground; their clothing was rough and meager, often 
merely the skins of beasts which served also for bedding.’7 
The Numidians employed both cavalry and infantry in their 
warfare, and their cavalry was famous. The foot-soldiers carried 
shields, sometimes made from the hides of elephants, and the 
horsemen rode bare-back on small but hardy horses which were 
managed by a bridle of rushes or a light switch.7* Their arms 
were the sword, the spear, and the dart; their method of attack 
was to ride up to the enemy, discharge a shower of missile 
weapons and then, when charged upon, to retreat. These tactics 


9 Pliny, N.H. v. 22. 

10 Ror a much fuller account of the Moeurs des tribus libyennes see 
Tissot, Géographie, I. pp. 471-527. 

11 Aelian, Nat. Anim. m1. 2. 

12 Scylax (in Geographi Graeci Minores, ed. C. Miiller, I. p. 88) ; Pro- 
copius, B.V. 11. 13. 20. 

13 Claudian, De Cons. Stil. 111. 19. 
Corippus, Johannid, 1. 245-246; 11. 1373 IV. 321; vul. 416 & 482. 
Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, xtv. 5. Io. 
Juvenal, v. 53; XI. 125. 
Manilius, 1v. 726-730. 
Nemesianus, Cynegetica, 261. 
Silius Italicus, 1. 439; vitr. 267. 

14 Strabo, Xvil. 3. 7. 

15 Herodotus, tv. 187; Appian, Pun. 71; 106; Sallust, Jug. 17. 6. 

16 Appian, Pun. 71;Procopius, B.V. 1. 6. 10-15. 

17 Corippus, Johannid, 11. 130-137; Procopius, B.V. 11. 6. 10-15; Strabo, 
RVI. 377. 

18 Lucan, tv. 682; Strabo, xvit. 3. 7. 


[C14 ] 


were repeated to the great annoyance of their foes and proved 
especially eftective when the latter, as was often the case, were 
unacquainted with the terrain.’ 

In later times these people were noted for their perfidy and 
could be governed only by the threat or application of force.?° 
They were superstitious and consulted oracles which were ut- 
tered entirely by women.?* Women were treated as servants and 
were often taken along on the campaigns to tend the animals, 
take charge of the food, and perform other menial tasks about 
the camp.”* Polygamy was practiced and large harems were kept, 
at least among the upper classes.?* 

The ancient Libyans, like the Berbers of today, were divided 
into nations and tribes which, though differing in many respects, 
were essentially the same. The more important nations were 
the Maurousiot, or Moors, and the Numidians. The best known 
tribes of the Numidians were the Masylies and the Masae- 
sylies.?4 

Such were the people who formed the base of the population 
of Hippo Regius and the adjacent territory. Upon them came 
the colonists, invaders, and conquerors who accomplished many 
changes in economic conditions, in government, and in religion 
and who erected imposing monuments. Many of the monu- 
ments still stand to bear witness to the genius and power of 
their builders but the native population remains much the same 
as it was in the earliest times. 

The later-comers were successively the Phenicians, the Ro- 
mans, the Vandals, the Byzantines, and the Arabs. An ethno- 
logical account of these peoples, or nations, is unnecessary. 

In addition to the races mentioned above there were even in 
classical times a certain number of Greeks in North Africa. 
Although the Greek sphere properly speaking did not extend 


19 Appian, Hispan. 25; Corippus, Johannid, 1. 114-115; 130-135; Strabo, 
XVileds 7. 

20 Corippus, Johannid, Iv. 447-451; Precopius, B.V. 11. 8. 9-12; 13. 
10. 35025" 20. 

21 Procopius, B.V. u. 8. 12 ff. cf. Tacitus, Germania, 8; Caesar, B.G. 
I. 50. 4. 

22 Procopius, B.V. u. 11. 18. 

23 Procopius, B.V. mu. 11, 13. Herodotus (Book tiv. 145 ff.) relates 
many strange stories about the position of women and the marriage 
customs of the various Libyan tribes. 

24 Strabo, . 5. 33. 


Rta) 


west of Cyrenaica, even in the western, or Punic, districts the 
all-pervading influence of Hellenism was felt, and some ac- 
count must be taken of the Greeks as a factor in the develop- 
ment of North Africa.?° In conclusion mention should be made 
of the negroes and Jews*® who seem to have been present in 
these regions from early times. They were without appreciable 
influence on the course of events. 


25 W. Thieling, Der Hellenismus in Kleinafrika. 

*6 Gsell, Hist. 1. pp. 302 ff.; 280-281. See Monceaux, Revue des études 
juives, XLIV, 1902, pp. 1-28, and Aug. Serm. 196. 4; that is if the read- 
ing, “Duo genera hominum hic sunt, Christiani et Judaei,” be correct. If 
the correct reading be hic sint, the passage is irrelevant. Sunt, however, 
is the preferred reading; cf. also Serm. 9. 3. 


[16 J 


LANGUAGE 


As far as may be learned from the extant data the only 
languages which were of importance in North Africa prior to 
the introduction of Arabic were Libyan, Phenician, Greek, and 
Latin. Greek and Latin are, of course, closely related members 
of the Indo-European language-group ; Phenician belongs to the 
Semitic group; and Libyan, or Berber, to the Hamitic. The 
Semitic and Hamitic groups are closely related; indeed Ethio- 
pian is assigned to the first by some philologists and to the 
second by others.* 

Little evidence and no statistics are available concerning the 
languages spoken at Hippo Regius, but some information of 
this kind does exist for North Africa and inferences drawn 
from it, if applied with certain qualifications, may be regarded 
as representing the conditions which obtained at Hippo Regius. 
The most important qualification is that linguistic change is 
quicker in commercial centers than in the country and, accord- 
ingly, a new language, introduced by merchants or soldiers, in 
time may well have supplanted the native idiom in the towns 
and cities while the older language continued to be spoken in 
the country districts. 

The Libyans spoke a language which was distinct from Pheni- 
cian? and which was harsh and barbarous,’ having sounds which 
could be pronounced properly only by those who spoke it as 
their mother-tongue.* Our meager knowledge of it is derived 
from inscriptions,’ from a study of the names of places and of 
people, and from modern Berber. In the later years of the Em- 


1 For a digest of these matters see Encylopedia Britannica, XII. p. 
894; XXIV. p. 620. 

2 Compare, for example, the Libyan and the Punic inscriptions. For a 
fuller account of “La Langue Libyque,” see Gsell, Hist. [L. pp. 309-326. 

3 Corippus, Johannid, U. 27; Iv. 351-352; Silius Italicus, m1. 305. 

4 Pliny, N.H. v. 1. At this point it may not be amiss to call attention to 
a statement made by Mommsen (Rdmische Geschichte, Fiinfter Band, 
Zweite Auflage, 1885, pp. 640-641) that “In Hinsicht der Sprache---- 
sicher kein Romer dieses Volksidiom (i.e. Libyan) verstand.’ This 
statement obviously cannot be proved and is very improbable. 

5 Faidherbe, Collection compléte des imscriptions numidiques (1870), 


Be yaad 


pire very many of the barbarae gentes of North Africa spoke 
this language which was essentially one® although it was divided 
into different dialects.’ 

This native speech was used at the time of the Punic Wars,® 
during several centuries around the turn of our era,° in the time 
of St. Augustine,?° and in that of Ibn Khaldoun.” It is still used 
at the present day.’ It was and is the language of the lower and 
less literate classes. Little literature of any importance has been 
written in it, and most of this has perished.** 

In view of these facts it is safe to state that Libyan was 
spoken at Hippo Regius from the earliest times until after the 
beginning of the Christian era. This statement is strengthened 
by the fact that a large number of the inscriptions published 
by General Faidherbe were found in the region of Bona.* 
For the later years of the Roman occupation we cannot be 
so sure; indeed, the silence of St. Augustine concerning Libyan 
and his specific mention of Punic, when speaking of the at- 
tainments necessary or desirable for a priest who was to serve 
in a not distant place, make it probable that, when the Roman 
power was at its height, Libyan was no longer spoken in the 
towns.’®> But that it was still spoken in the more remote 


has collected and published nearly 200. See also, inter alia, Revue Afri- 
caine, XVII. pp. 62-65. They have remained undecipherable except for the 
word ou and proper names (Gsell, Hist. I. p. 310). 

6 Aug. D.C D. xvi. 6. 

7 Corippus, Johannid, Iv. 351-352. 

8 Silius Italicus, 111. 305. 

® Faidherbe, Inscriptions numidiques, pp. 11 ff. (ie. the evidence is 
direct if his dating is correct, otherwise merely inferential) ; Athenaeus, 
TT. 25Pa3"D, 

10 Aug. D.C.D. xvi. 6. 

11Tbn Khaldoun, Prolégoménes (tr. de Slane), III. p. 358, “Sur le 
continent africain----les Berbéres forment la masse de la population, 
et leur langue est celle de toutes parties du pays, a l’exception des 
grandes villes, aussi la langue arabe s’y trouve submergée sous les flottes 
de cet idiome barbare, de ce jargon par les Berbéres.” 

12 Gsell, Hist. I. p. 300. 

13 Henri Basset, Essai sur la littérature des Berbéres, pp. 61 ff. 

14Faidherbe, Inscriptions numidiques, p. 10. 

1° Aug. Epist. 200. 3. Faidherbe (Inscriptions numidiques, p. 12) says 
that St. Augustine means Libyan not Punic. General Faidherbe’s argu- 
ment is not convincing on this point. See also Aug. Serm. 288. 3, where 
he speaks of Greek, Latin, Punic and Hebrew. If Libyan had been fa- 
miliar to his hearers it is very probable that he would have mentioned it. 


[ 18 J 


districts seems to be attested by the numbers and distribution of 
those who today speak Berber and by St. Augustine himself.*® 

Hippo Regius was founded by the Phenicians or the Carth- 
aginians and from this fact we should infer that in early times 
the speech of the official and upper classes was Punic. Indeed, 
in the towns of North Africa in general, Punic probably sup- 
planted to a certain extent the language of the aborigines, al- 
though, as has been stated above, Libyan continued in use for 
several hundred years. Greek probably came into use to some 
extent as the language of culture’? even in the Carthaginian 
period, but Punic continued to be used in the homes even of the 
better classes as late as the second century of our era.*® It was 
used on North African coins until the time of Tiberius, after 
which it was superseded by Latin on the coins and for official 
purposes,’® although it could be used for legal documents as late 
as the third century.”° 

In the time of St. Augustine Punic was widely spoken?’ but 
was not universally understood in the town.”? It was still spoken 
in the sixth century,?* but is believed by Mommsen to have be- 
come obsolete at or before the coming of the Saracens.4 


16 D.C.D, xvi. 6. Some of these barbarae gentes doubtless dwelt in 
the province of Numidia. 

17 Cicero, Tusc. ml. 54. This passage points to the use of Greek 
among the Carthaginians if the book which Cicero read (presumably in 
Greek) was the original, not a translation. Varro, De Re Rust. 1. 1. 10 
(if Dionysius was a native) ; however, it is noteworthy that Mago wrote 
in Punic. Nepos, Hannibal, 13. 2; “namque aliquot eius (i.e. Hannibalis) 
libri sunt, Graeco sermone confecti---.” 

18 Apuleius, Apol. 98; Statius, Silv. 1v. 5. 45; Vita Septimi Severi, Chs. 
1 &15; Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 20. 8. 

19 Mommsen, R.G. V. pp. 642-643, especially note 1; Gsell, Hist. I. 
p. 332; Muller, Numismatique de lAncienne Afrique, III. p. 124. no. 107. 
For the period from 202-46 B.C. ibid. III. pp. 7-51; 88-102; Supplement, 
60-65. 

20 Ulpian, Fideicomm. II (Digest. 32. 11). 

21 Aug. Epist. 209.3; Epistolae ad Romanos Inchoata Expositio, 13; 
De Haeresibus ad Quodvultdeum, 87; Epist. 84. 2; 66. 2; Enarrat. 
in Psalm, 123. 8. The Circumcellions communicated with outsiders per 
punicum interpretem (Epist. 108. 14); and the Donatists used only 
Latin and Punic of which the latter was apparently widely spoken (Epist. 
Ioh. ad Parth. Tract. II. 3). 

22 Aug. Serm. 167. 4. 

23 Procopius, B.V. 11. 10. 20 

24R.G. V. p. 643. 


[ 19 | 


From the sketch given above we should conclude that Punic 
was spoken at Hippo Regius from very early times until the 
seventh century ; in the earlier period by the upper classes, and 
in the later periods by the lower classes in the city and by some 
of the rural population—probably by the majority. 

There is practically no direct evidence*® for the use of Greek 
in Hippo Regius; but, as there is no evidence to the contrary, 
we may believe that the conditions which obtained in the neigh- 
boring towns and cities represent the conditions in this city also. 

Greek influence appears to have made itself felt in North 
Africa from an early period and the Greek language may have 
been used by a few natives even in the Carthaginian period, al- 
though its use did not become at all general until later.*° 

The Greek influence was strong at the courts of several of the 
native kings under the early Empire. This was especially the 
case at the court of Juba II who wrote many books and treatises 
in that tongue and who surrounded himself with Greek art and 
artists.?” 

In the second century Greek was taught in the schools and, as 
the language of culture, was known and used by the educated 
and by scholars.** In the fourth and still in the sixth century, 
although it was a lingua peregrina, it was taught in the schools 
and seems to have been understood to a certain extent.?® In 
Byzantine times it was on a level with Latin as an official lan- 
guage, but was probably understood little, if at all, by the na- 
tives.®° | 


25 See Gsell, Inscriptions, I. nos. 28 & 29. 

26 Cicero, Acad. Priora, 11. 98; Justinus, xx. 5. 10-13; Livy, Epit. L; 
Stephanus Byzantinus, Kapxndv; Gsell, Hist. IV. pp. 192-193; Thieling. 
Hellenismus, pp. 23-25. 

27 Thieling, Hellenismus, pp. 19 ff.; Athenaeus, vir. 343E; Fragmenta 
Historicorum Graecorum, III. pp. 465 ff. The coins of this king were for 
the most part Latin, but there are numerous examples of Greek, or Greco- 
Latin coins (Muller, Numismatique, III. pp. 103-125). 

28 Apuleius, Met. 1. 1; Apol. 10; 87; 98; Florid. (ed. Thomas, pwb. 
Teubner, 1908) p. 5. Ch. 5. nos. 112-113; Fronto, Epist. Graec.; see also 
Leclerq, L’Afrique chrétienne, 1. pp. 91-93. 

29 Aug. Conf. I. 23; IX. 32; Serm. 288. 3; Vita Fulgentu (P.L. no 65. 
col. 119). 

80 Bouchier, Life and Letters in Roman Africa, p. 115; Thieling, 
Hellenismus, p. 175. 


[ 20 ] 


To sum up; from Carthaginian to Byzantine times Greek was 
used in North Africa as it was in most of the Mediterranean 
World. For a considerable period around the turn of our era 
it was the language of culture. With the introduction of Latin 
it gradually went out of use so that by the end of the fourth 
century it had become merely a language taught in the schools 
and spoken by such Greeks as may have been resident in Hippo 
Regius and other similar towns or cities. 

Latin was introduced into North Africa by the Roman con- 
querors ; it came into general use probably at the time of the 
beginning of the Empire.*' The history of its spread, the char- 
acteristics of its Latinity, and the wealth of its literature are 
so well known from the numerous inscriptions and the volum- 
inous extant literature that a discussion of them here is un- 
necessary.*” 

This section on language may be concluded with a few words 
about the speech of the Vandals which Chadwick believes was 
practically identical with Gothic.*? When the Vandals crossed 
the Straits, probably in 428 A.D., all the males numbered 
about 80,000.°4 They remained in Africa about one hundred 
years,*° and their language, which they retained for some time,*® 
was of course less developed than the Punic and Latin of the 
conquered. In view of these facts it is unlikely that the speech 
of the conquerors was learned or used by any large proportion 
of the provincials. It may, accordingly, be dismissed with this 
brief mention. 


31 Thieling, Hellenismus, p. 25. 

32 For a general discussion of this subject see Boissier, Roman 
Africa, Ch. 7, no. 4; Bouchier, Life and Letters in Roman Africa, 
Ch. X. See also: Budinsky, Die Ausbreitung der Lateinischen Sprache, 
Ch. XIII; Sittl, Die Lokalen Verschiedenheiten der Lateinischen Sprache, 
III Teil. In recent years the view has gained wide acceptance that 
the peculiarities of African Latin are chronological rather than local. 

83 Encyclopedia Britannica, XXVI. p. 676; Procopius. B.V. 1. 2. 5. 
A good account of the language of the Vandals is in Papencordt, 
Geschichte der Vandalischen Herrschaft in Africa, pp. 287-308. For a 
probable specimen of their speech see Baehrens, Poetae Latini Minores, 
IV. no. 439. 

34 Victor Vitensis, 1. 2; Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, II. p. 231. 
note 2. 

35 Hodgkin, op. cit. II. Note E (pp. 290-2096). 

86 Victor Vitensis, 1. 18; 11. 55. 


[ 21 J 


NAME AND FOUNDATION 


It is impossible to determine with certainty and exactness 
either the form and etymology of the name of Hippo Regius, 
or the date and circumstances of the foundation of the town. 
Two North African towns were named Hippo; one being known 
as Hippo Regius and the other as Hippo Diarrhytus. 

The word “Hippo” is certainly Phenician,’ but scholars are 
not agreed either as to its exact form in Semitic or as to its 
meaning.? “The origin of the epithet Regius----is unknown. It is 
possible that it may be the translation of a Punic word. One can 
suppose also (C.J.L. VIII. p. 516; Tissot Géographie, I. p. 98) 
that Hippo received this additional name intended to distinguish 
it from the other Hippo, because it became a part of the kingdom 
of Numidia after having been taken away from Carthage, while 
Bizerte remained a part of the Roman province of Africa until 
146. It is not proved that it was the residence of the native rulers, 
as the epithet Regius seems to have led Strabo (xvii. 3. 13. 
oi Ovo ‘InmGves .. . dudw Bacitea) and Silius Italicus (1. 259. 
antiquis dilectus regibus Hippo) to think.’ 


1 Tissot, Géographie, II. p. 90. The statement of Solinus (xxvii.7), 
“Hipponem Regium postea dictum, item Hipponem alterum de interflu- 
enti freto Diarrhytum nuncupatum, nobilissima oppida, equites Graeci 
condiderunt,” is clearly wrong and is obviously based on a false etymolo- 
gy of the word “Hippo.” 

2 What is known of the Semitic form of Hippo and accordingly of its 
meaning and derivation rests on some Sidonian coins of the second 
century B.C. and on some African coins, attributed to Hippo Regius 
but not with certainty. Descriptions, facsimiles, decipherings, and dis- 
cussions of the Sidonian coins, together with some of the proposed 
etymologies, are to be found, inter alia, in the following places: Movers, 
Die Phénizier, II. 2. pp. 132 ff.; A. Muller, Sitzungsberichte der Aka- 
demie der Wissenschaften (Wien), Philos.-histor. Classe XXXV, 1860, 
pp. 35 ff.; Babelon, Catalogue des monnaies grecques de la Bibliothéque 
Nationale, Rois de Syrie, pp. cx & cxxii, nos. 689-690 & 788-789; Perses 
achéménides, p. clxxxvi, nos. 1619-1625; Meltzer, Geschichte der Kar- 
thager, I. pp. 467 ff. There is disagreement both as to the readings and 
as to the resulting etymologies. The African coins are treated by L. 
Muller, Nuwmismatique, III. pp. 53-57, and Supplement, pp. 66 ff. 

8 Gsell, Atlas, Texte, IX. p. 6. The statement, sometimes implicitly 
made, that the epithet “regius” applied to a North African city indicates 


[ 22 ] 


The following adjectival forms of the name of the city occur: 
Hipponiensis,* Hipponensis,° Hipponienses (Hipponenses) re- 
gii,° Hipponeregienses,’ Hipporegii.® 

Hippo Regius was a Semitic colony. This conclusion is based 
on the following facts: its name is Semitic, it was situated in 
the Phenician sphere,® a typically Phenician wall has been dis- 
covered among its ruins,’? Punic was spoken there for many 
centuries,’’ and finally it is known that there was a Phenician 
Hippo in North Africa. This last fact is attested by the Sidonian 
coins mentioned in note 2 of this section, and is corroborated by 
Sallust?? and by Isidore of Seville, but as none of these sources 
adds an epithet to the name “Hippo,” itis impossible to determine 
to which of the African Hippos they refer and, indeed, it is not 
necessary to suppose that they all refer to the same city. How- 
ever, owing to the identity of the first part of the names of these 
two cities, it is an almost necessary assumption that they were 
both founded by the same race, that is, in this case, by either 
the Phenicians or the Carthaginians. But whether Hippo Regius 
was Phenician or Carthaginian cannot be determined on account 
of lack of evidence. If it was Phenician it was established be- 
tween the twelfth and ninth centuries B.C., or possibly later, 
while if it was Carthaginian, its foundation must have been sub- 
sequent to the end of the ninth century, that is, if we accept the 
date of the founding of Carthage which Gsell believes most prob- 


that the city belonged at some time to a native kingdom is entirely rea- 
sonable, but I fail to find positive evidence for it. 

4CJ.L. VIII. no. 4804; IX. no. 1592; X. no. 5178 (if these inscriptions 
refer to H.R. not to H.D.); Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon, anno 429 
(Chronica Minora, Mommsen, II. p. 77). 

5 Aug. D.C.D. xxii. 8. 11; Epist. 22.9; Possidius, Sancti Augustint 
Vita (edited with revised text, introduction, notes, and an English 
version by H. T. Weiskotten), 6; 24; 28. 

Streirisio ii, COl.-1316; Aug. Epist. 20: 86: 213, 

7 Mansi, Amplissima Collectio Conciliorum, IV. 334; Hydatius, Con- 
tinuatio Chronicorum, anno 412 (Chronica Minora, Mommsen, II. p. 18). 

8 Victor Vitensis, I. 10. 

9 Mommsen, F.G. V. p. 623. 

10 Gsell, Hist. II. p. 150. That this wall is really Phenician has recently 
been questioned (Bulletin de l Académie d’H1ppone, no. 34. pp. 144-145). 

11 See the preceding section. 

12 Sallust, Jug. 19; Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, xv. 1. 28. 


[ 23 J 


able.1* At all events, it is practically certain that it was founded 
before the end of the fourth century B.C.** Although these limits 
are very wide, it is more than doubtful if they can be narrowed. 

As there is no reason to suppose that the history of Hippo 
Regius was essentially different from that of the other Semitic 
cities in North Africa, it is possible to suggest the broad out- 
lines of its early history, although it is not possible to fill in 
these outlines with specific details. 

In the earliest times Hippo Regius was a commercial post and 
later, when the loosely-connected Carthaginian Empire grew 
up, it became a member of this Empire.’® During this period the 
lower classes were Libyan while the ruling classes were Punic.*® 
The principal officers of government were two annually elected 
suffetes.™” | 

Although one might go further and imagine that, as a member 
of the Carthaginian Empire, Hippo Regius took part in the 
great struggle with Rome and furnished ships and men, such an 
account, elaborated on the basis of inference and conjecture, 
while in keeping with all probability, would have no basis in 
actual evidence. 

With the collapse of the Carthaginian power Hippo Regius 
became first a part of the kingdom of Masinissa and later a part 
of the Roman Empire.*® 


13 Gsell, Hist. I. pp. 371 ff. It has been suggested by Umbenstock 
(Bulletin de Académie d’Hippone, 1914-1921, pp. 76 ff.) that Hippo 
Regius was an Egypto-Phenician rather than a purely Phenician founda- 
tion. 

14 See below, Section 12. 

15 Gsell, Hist. I. p. 460. 

16 See above, Section 3. 

17 Gsell, Hist. II. pp. 193 ff. 

18 Pliny, N. H. v. 22. See, however, Tauxier, Jtinéraire de Rusicade 
a Hippone (Bulletin de lTAcadémie d’Hippone, 1870, pp. 49-52). 


[ 24 ] 


PROVINCIAL STATUS 


From the beginning of North African history until the over- 
throw of the Byzantine power in Africa by the Arabs, the his- 
tory of Hippo Regius as a member of a larger political unit 
falls into five periods. During the first, or Carthaginian period, 
Hippo, as has been shown in the preceding section, almost cer- 
tainly belonged to the Carthaginian Empire. During the second 
period it belonged to a native kingdom; during the third to a 
provincial division of the Roman Empire; and during the fourth 
to the kingdom of the Vandals. The fifth and last period was 
the Byzantine. 

Hippo was situated in that portion of North Africa which 
is generally known as Numidia and, although but little is 
specifically known about the relations of Hippo to the succes- 
sive governments of this region, it must necessarily have been 
affected by them. To attempt, however, to treat at all fully 
the various changes in the government of the larger units to 
which Hippo belonged, or to give an account of their rulers— 
Carthaginian merchant-princes, Berber kings, Roman civil 
and military officers, Vandal kings, and Byzantine officials— 
would far exceed the proper limits of this section and would 
lead too far afield from the history of the city itself. 

The relations of Hippo to Carthage during the first period 
have already been suggested.t It remains, therefore, to sketch 
very briefly the history of Numidia from the dissolution of 
the Carthaginian power to the end of the Byzantine rule in 
Africa. 

During the Berber period its government doubtless offered 
no features of particular interest. If we could be sure that the 
epithet Regius? proves that a royal residence existed there dur- 
ing this period, this fact would be of interest; but, while the 
existence of a royal residence at Hippo is by no means improb- 
able, little reliance can be placed upon any conclusions drawn 
from the use of the epithet. 

At the end of the third Punic War, Numidia fell to Masinissa? 


1 See the preceding section. 
2 Silius Italicus, m1. 259. 
8 Appian, Pun. 106; Pliny, N.H. v. 22. 


Be25ut 


and.apparently continued in the hands of his successors until 
the Jugurthine War.* At the time of the Civil Wars it was 
under Juba.° 

In 46 B.C. Caesar made it a province under Sallust as pro- 
consul. During the years that followed it experienced many 
vicissitudes.” Later it was returned to Juba II, but, after he had 
enjoyed his paternal domains for a short time, he was forced 
to exchange them for Mauretania and thereupon Numidia be- 
came and for approximately four centuries remained a part of 
the Roman Empire.® 

The provincial history of Numidia under the Roman rule is 
very complex and will be passed over inasmuch as it is of no 
vital importance for the history of Hippo Regius. It will be 
of interest, however, to mention two inscriptions which perhaps 
furnish some indication of the importance of Hippo in Imperial 
times. In regard to them Gsell says :° “Two inscriptions from the 
time of Septimius Severus mention Legati provinciae Africae 
regionis Hippontensis (C.I.L. X. 5178) or dioeceseos Hippo- 
niensis (C.I.L. 1X. 1592) ------------- ------------ 
In spite of the opinion to the contrary expressed in the C.J. bs 
VIII. p. 516 (cf. Mommsen, Ephemeris Epigraphica, |. p. 133) 
we should conclude that the diocese of Hippo got its name from 
Hippo Regius and not from Hippo Diarrhytus.” Unfortunately 
it seems that little of interest in regard to the city itself can be 
inferred from these inscriptions. 

In the third decade of the fifth century Numidia came under 
the power of the Vandals and remained under Germanic rule 
for approximately a century.’° 

The final stage of the provincial history of Numidia and 
consequently of Hippo Regius is the Byzantine. North Africa 
was recovered for the Empire in the sixth century and Numidia 
became a province under a praeses.** By the middle of the next 


4 Sallust, Jug. 19. 

5 Caesar, B.C. 11. 25; see also the index nominum in the Teubner edi- 
tion of Caesar’s Works, under Juba. 

6 Appian, B.C. 11. 100; Hirtius, B. Afr. 97; Dio, xxitt. 9. 

7 For a documented account of this period see Smith, Dict. of Geog. 
I, pp. 69-72. 

S Dio, 22,715 : Strabo, xvii. 2753.32. 

9 Atlas, Texte, IX. p. 6. 

10 See Section 12; Victor Vitensis, 1. 13; also Papencordt, Geschichte. 

11 Bocking, Notitia Dignitatum, II. p. 155. 


[ 26 ] 


century all of North Africa had been thrown into confusion 
owing to the decaying power of the Empire and the oncoming 
hordes of Islam. 

Although the foregoing account is very brief it is, perhaps, 
adequate, inasmuch as it is the purpose of this section merely 
to suggest the relations which Hippo Regius, as a city of Num- 
idia, bore to those larger political units to which it successively 
belonged. 


ey 


MUNICIPAL STATUS AND GOVERNMENT 


In dealing with the municipal history of Hippo Regius one 
should determine, as far as possible, the status of this city at 
different periods and should record any special features of its 
administration which could not reasonably be inferred from the 
determination of its status. 

The probable course of its history under the Carthaginian 
rule has already been suggested.1 We must now trace, as far 
as the data will permit, its development under Roman govern- 
ment. Hippo Regius is several times mentioned by ancient au- 
thors as an oppidum? and several times as a civitas,* but no in- 
ferences as to its municipal status may be drawn from these 
references. 

The following account will show that it was at one period a 
municipium and at a later period a colonia, but it is impossible 
to determine precisely the periods at which it received these 
privileges. Either as a municipium or as a colonia its govern- 
ment was doubtless of the general type described by Arnold- 
Bouchier,* and indeed specific evidence is not lacking for the 
existence at Hippo Regius of many of the local officials typical 
of Roman provincial cities. It had its aediles,’ flamines august- 
ales,> duumviri,” duumviri quinquennales,® curiales,? and de- 
curiones.*° 


1 See above, Section 5. 

2 Pliny, N.H. v. 22; Honorius (Geographi Latini Minores, ed. Riese, 
p. 47); Cosmographia (ibid. p. 89). 

3 The Geographer of Ravenna (in Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia, 
ed. Pinder & Parthey, pp. 148 & 347) ; Guido (ibid. p. 518). 

4 Roman Provincial Administration, pp. 236 ff. 

5 Gsell, Inscriptions, no. 10. 

Sibid, nos. 11; 95-96. 

7 ibid. nos. 10; 11; 95-96. 

8 ibid. no. Io. 

9 Symmachus, Epist. 1x. 51 (?). 

10 Gsell, Inscriptions, nos. 7; 13 (?); 82; 132; CJ.L. XIV. no. 303. 
From no, 132 we should conclude that the local senate of Hippo Regius 
consisted of 50 rather than the usual 100 members. For mention of an- 
other local municipal (?) officer see Aug. Epist. 222. 1. 


[ 28 ] 


The evidence that Hippo Regius was at one time a municipium 
consists of the inscriptions cited in notes 5-10 and also number 
109 in Gsell’s Inscriptions which reads as follows: MUNIC. 
AUG HIPP. REG. From this last inscription we should con- 
clude that Hippo Regius was made a municipium by Augustus.1? 

Ancient writers mention Hippo Regius as a colonia certainly 
twice and possibly three times. Pliny states that between the 
Amsaga flumen and Cyrenaica there were six colonies.’? These 
six colonies were Cirta, Sicca, Carthage, Maxula, Uthina, and 
Tuburbi.** It is evident from this that Hippo Regius was not a 
colonia in the time of Pliny the Elder. Zumpt argues that it had 
not yet attained this rank in the time of Trajan, but his argu- 
ments are not entirely convincing.** 

The data from which it appears that Hippo Regius was a 
colonia are as follows: 

In the first place, Ptolemy mentions an Aphrodisium and then 
Hippo Regius. In the text the word colonia goes with the name 
of the former city but Muller has no doubt that it belongs not 
with Aphrodisium but with Hippo Regius.*®* If he is right, 
Hippo Regius had become a colonia by the time of the Anton- 
ines. 

In the second place, the Jtinerarium Antonini mentions Hippo 
Regius six times, once adding the word colonia.*® 

In the third place, St. Augustine says: “Memorati memoriam 
martyris, quae posita est in Castello Sinitensi, quod Hipponensi 
coloniae vicinum est, eiusdem loci Lucillus episcopus, populo 
praecedente atque sequente, portabat.’?7 Although we cannot 
determine with certainty whether the place referred to as H1p- 
ponensis colonia is Hippo Regius or Hippo Diarrhytus, it is 
somewhat more likely from the context that the reference is 


11 See also Barthel, Zur Geschichte der rémischen Stadte in Africa, 
p. 24. It is just possible that a colony of veterans was established at Hippo 
Regius (Gsell, Inscriptions, I. nos. 31 & 32). 

12 NH. v. 20. 

13 tbid, v. 22-20. 

14 Commentationes Epigraphicae, I. p. 424; cf. p. 407. 

15 Geographia, ed. Miller, tv. 3. 2. 

16 ed. Parthey & Pinder, pp. 3; 18; 19(ter) ; 8 (colonia). 

NER ENR ES ao Fe ae OB 


[ 20 ] 


to the latter than that it is to the former. If this supposition be 
correct, the passage is not relevant. 

Finally, St. Augustine says also: “Si enim miracula sanita- 
tum, ut alia taceam, ea tantummodo velim scribere, quae per 
hunc martyrem, id est gloriosissimum Stephanum, facta sunt in 
colonia Calamensi et in nostra, plurimi conficiendi sunt libri, 
----.”"18 Although it is possible to supply a civitate and con- 
strue nostra with it, a far more natural and more reasonable 
interpretation is to construe nostra with the preceding colonia. 
If the second interpretation is accepted, it follows that Hippo 
Regius was a colonia in the first part of the fifth century after 
Christ. 

To recapitulate: it is almost certain that Hippo Regius was a 
colonia and it is probable that it received this rank between the 
time of Trajan and that of the Antonines, and that it retained 
this status until the Vandal invasion. 

The last point to be mentioned in connection with the muni- 
cipal status of this city is that in all probability it belonged to 
the Tribus Quirina.'? 

A few special facts of interest are known in regard to the 
local government. From one inscription which has survived we 
learn that during the Byzantine period a Roman garrison was 
stationed in this city.2? From another inscription Gsell concludes 
that the Roman soldier, whose epitaph it forms, had been 
charged with police duty in the city. He was a member of the 
garrison at Rome.”' Finally, we learn from St. Augustine that 


in his time there was in existence a sort of constabulary.”* 


18 1).C.D. xxit. 8.20; cf. Martianus Capella, vi. 669 (?). 
19 Gsell, Inscriptions, I. nos. 10 & 1378. 

20 ibid. no. 81. 

21 ibid. no. 30. 

22 Epist. 115. 


[gary 


TERRITORIUM AND IMPERIAL DOMAINS 


What little is known about the territorium of Hippo Regius 
can, perhaps, best be given as a paraphrase of the account in 
Mesnage’s L’ Afrique chrétienne.* The territorium of this com- 
mune was very large. Its limit toward the north-west is indi- 
cated by a boundary stone found near the river Ouider at a dis- 
tance of about seventeen miles from Hippo as the crow flies ; 
this was the limit on the side of the territorium of Cirta. To 
the east, on the side of Thabarca, the boundary is indicated 
by a stone found at Mechta el Agareb which is about twen- 
ty-five miles in a straight line from Hippo Regius.* To the 
south-west, the territorium of Hippo doubtless did not extend 
beyond the pass of Fedjoudje which is the same distance from 
the city and near to which a boundary stone, placed by the 
people of Calama has been’ discovered.* We should probably 
conclude from an inscription found at Ascours that this place 
also belonged to the commune.’ Toward the south-east, the 
territorium seems to have extended much farther. It is, perhaps, 
on this side that one should place the castellum Fussala which 
was Hipponensi territorio confine and is mentioned by St. 
Augustine in his two hundred and ninth epistle, where he says 
that it was about forty miles from Hippo.® 

So far Mesnage. A glance at the map at the end of the first 
volume of Gsell’s Inscriptions latines de L’ Algérie will show 
that the territorium of Hippo Regius was, roughly speaking, 
about forty miles square;’ that the Seybouse, which flows al- 
most due north in its lower reaches, practically bisected it ; and 
that about half of the mountain-mass known as the “Edough” 
and all or almost all of Lake Fetzara lay within it. 

There is apparently record of only one imperial domain in 
the territorium of Hippo Regius. The record consists of two 


1 pp. 265-266. 

2 Gsell, Inscriptions, I. no. 134. 

3 Comptes rendus de lAcadémie d’Hippone, 1897, p. lv. 
4 Gsell, Inscriptions, I. no. 3877. 

5 ibid. no. 132. 

6 See also Aug. D.C.D. xxut. 8. 

7 With the south-eastern corner somewhat extended. 


Wess 4009 


inscriptions® in honor of one Titus Flavius Macer who was, 
among other things, intendent praediorum saltuum (Hip) pon- 
tensis et Thevestini. Gsell says in a note to the second of these 
inscriptions : “One sees in these two texts, cut a few years after 
the death of Trajan, that the word saltus designates not a 
grand domaine but a circonscription domaniale.’® 


8 Gsell, Inscriptions, I. nos. 285 & 3992. 


® From no, 3992 it appears that there was a corporation of conductores 
in Hippo in the second century. 


[ 32] 


THE DIOCESE OF HIPPO REGIUS 


Mesnage, in L’ Afrique chrétienne,? says: “In numerous places 
in his works St. Augustine tells us of a certain number of local- 
ities situated in his diocese and some of these possessed churches 
or oratories----.” His list, with references, is in brief as fol- 
lows: 

1. AupuRus, fundus, D.C.D. xxii.8.15. There was a church 
there containing a relic of St. Stephen. 
2. CARRARIA, perhaps a suburb, or a section of Hippo, Serm. 


350.10. 

3. CASPALIANA, possessio, near Audurus, D.C.D.xxii.8.16. 

4. Cizan, Epist.63.4. 

5. Fussava, which became a bishopric toward 410, Epist. 209; 
224. An oratory, situated on a private domain of the name 
of Zubedi of which we have spoken above, contained earth 
from the Holy Sepulchre, D.C.D.xxii.8.6. 

. GERMANICIANA, E pist. 251----. 

. Grept, FE pist. 65.1. 

. Hasna, Epist.29.12. There was a church in that place. 

g. MappattA, imperial domain (?),----Epist.66; Contra Litt. 

Petiliani, ii.83.184(?) ; 11.99.228(?). 

10. SPANIANUM, praedium, Epist.35.2. 

II. STRABONIANENSIS, fundus, Epist.65. 

12. SUBSANA, Epist.62 363. 

13. Tuiava,----E pist.83.1 ; Possidius, Vita, 30. 

14. TULLIENSE, municip. which later became a bishopric, De 

Cura Gerenda pro Mortuis, 15; Mansi, Collectio, VI11.647. 

15. Turres, Epist. 63.4. (see, however, Epist. 34.6.) 

16. Ural, Epist. 105.3. 

17. VERBALIS, E pist.63.4. 

18. VicToRIANA, villa, thirty miles from Hippo, D.C.D.xxii.8.7 ; 

Epist. 105.3; but cf. Serm. 356.15----. 


A few remarks upon this list are needed. In the first place, 
the references do not always prove in a satisfactory manner 
that the places referred to belonged to the diocese of Hippo 
Regius—in fact in the cases of Audurus, Caspaliana, Hasna, 
Thiava, Urgi, and Victoriana the references seem to prove either 
nothing in regard to their diocesan status or even the contrary 
of that which Mesnage apparently thinks they prove. In the sec- 


COON OF 


1 pp. 266-267. Where a reference is given by title only in this list the 
author is St. Augustine. 
Less 


ond-place, so few of the places named in this list can be 
definitely located, that it is impossible to define the limits of 
the diocese, although some indication of its extent may, per- 
haps, be furnished by the fact that at one time Fussala belonged 
tO 1: 


Although the diocese of Hippo Regius may be reasonably 
conjectured to have been practically coterminous with the ter- 


ritorium of the city, the preceding list and remarks apparently 
comprise all that is known or may be reasonably conjectured 
about the extent of this diocese. It belonged to the ecclesiastical 
province of Numidia.? 


2 Possidius, Vita, 8. 


Daa 


BISHOPS 


The names of nine of the bishops of Hippo Regius have es- 
caped oblivion, but, with the exception of St. Augustine, little 
is known about them. Mesnage has made a list of their names 
and has included in his list most of the references which are 
pertinent.” 

The first of these bishops was Theogenes. It is well authenti- 
cated that he was bishop of Hippo Regius; that he attended the 
Council of Carthage in 256; and that, when he was asked for 
his judgment de haereticis baptizandis, he replied: “Secundum 
Sacramentum Dei gratiae coelestis, quod accepimus, unum bap- 
tisma, quod est in Ecclesia Sancta, credimus.’? More than this 
is not known about him, although there is a tradition that he was 
martyred with thirty-six others under Valerian in 259.° 

The second bishop of Hippo, of whom there is record, was 
Leontius. He founded a church in which St. Augustine after- 
ward preached.* He was probably martyred in 303 A.D.° 

The bishop Fidentius was the first of the “Twenty Martyrs.” 
A church was dedicated to them at Hippo Regius and was re- 
puted to have wrought at least one signal miracle.® The story 
of certain of the martyrs of Hippo, probably the “Twenty,” is 
briefly as follows: They were ordered to sacrifice, they refused, 
they were thrown into prison, and finally they received the 
crown of confessors and martyrs.’ 


17’ Afrique chrétienne, pp. 263-264. A list of the later (titular) bishops 
of Hippo Regius may be found in Morcelli, Africa Christiana, I. pp. 
184-185. 

2 Sententiae Episcoporum LXXXVII de Haereticis Baptizandis, no. 15 
(P.L. no. 3. col. 1100); Aug. De Baptismo contra Donatistas, vi. 36; 
Mansi, Collectio, I .977. no. 18. He is mentioned by St. Augustine in Serm. 
273.7. 

3 See Ruinart, Acta Sincera, pp. 223 ff.; and in the Bollandist Acta 
Sanctorum, 26 January (III. pp. 323 ff.). 

4 Aug. Epist. 29; Serm. 262. 2. 

5 Monceaux, Hist. Litt. II]. pp. 152-153. 

6 Aug. Serm. 325. 1; D.C.D. xx. 8..9. 

7 Aug. Serm. 326.2. The martyrdom of the “Twenty” was probably in 
304 A.D. (Monceaux, Hist. Litt. II. p. 153). 


e35ic 


Faustinus was the first Donatist bishop of Hippo of whom 
we hear. All that is known about him is that he forbade the 
bakers of his city to bake for Catholics and that in the time of 
St. Augustine there were still people who remembered him.? 

Concerning Valerius, the immediate predecessor of St. Au- 
gustine considerably more is known. Our information is derived 
almost entirely from Possidius,? whose account sheds much 
light on the democratic and tumultuous method of choosing the 
clergy at that time and place. This account may be summarized 
as follows: Valerius, the Catholic bishop of Hippo, on account 
of his increasing ecclesiastical duties exhorted his flock to pro- 
vide and ordain a presbyter for the city and they, already ac- 
quainted with the life and teaching of the holy Augustine, un- 
expectedly and forcibly dragged him before Valerius and com- 
pelled him to be ordained although it was against his will. 

Valerius, recognizing both the ability of Augustine as a 
preacher and his own limitations, inasmuch as he was a Greek 
by birth and less versed in the Latin language and literature, 
gave his presbyter the right of preaching the Gospel in his 
presence in the church and very frequently of holding public 
discussions—contrary to the practice and custom of the African 
churches. This act of Valerius led some bishops to find fault 
with him but he, knowing well that this was the practice of 
the Eastern churches and considering only the welfare of the 
Church, took no notice of the words of his detractors if only 
his presbyter might do that which he saw could not be accom- 
plished by himself as bishop. | 

As Augustine’s fame and popularity increased, Valerius 
feared—and apparently with good reason—that his presbyter 
would be sought to fill a bishopric elsewhere and accordingly 
communicated secretly with his Primate, the Bishop of Carth- 
age, and, mentioning the weakness of his body and the burden 
of his years, sought to have Augustine ordained Bishop of 
Hippo because he would not in that case then succeed to his 
office but would be associated with him as coadjutor-bishop. 
Valerius obtained a satisfactory answer to this request. Later 
when Megalius, Bishop of Calama, and at that time Primate 
of Numida, had come at his request to visit the Church at 


8 Aug. Contra Litt. Petiliani, 11. 184. 
9 Vita, 4; 5; 8. Cf. also Aug. Epist. 31. 4; 33. 4. 


[ 36 J 


Hippo, unexpectedly to all, he made his desire known to the 
bishops who happened at that time to be present, and to all the 
clergy of Hippo and to all the people with the result that 
Augustine was then made Coadjutor-bishop of Hippo. 

We know also from one of St. Augustine’s sermons that it 
was Valerius who gave him “hortum illum in quo nunc est 
monasterium.’’?° 

From these few facts which are known about Valerius it is 
evident that he was not insistent on his own position and pres- 
tige but simply anxious for the good of the Church, moreover 
that it was his own church of which he thought primarily and 
for whose advantage he exercised a very timely prudence. From 
the fact that he was “old and infirm’ when Augustine was 
chosen bishop in 395 we should probably infer that he died 
not long afterwards." 

Valerius’ successor was, of course, St. Augustine. So much 
has been written about him that it is unnecessary to give here an 
account of his life. 

The second Donatist bishop of whom there is record was 
Proculeianus.’? We hear of an appeal to him. It was made by 
St. Augustine and was that they, as the representatives of 
the Catholics and Donatists, should try to come to some agree- 
ment in order that the Church might have peace. This was made 
before the death of Valerius.1* He is mentioned also in a letter 
of the clergy of Hippo to Januarius.'* 

The last of the Donatist bishops of Hippo of whom we hear 
was Macrobius. Although he is mentioned several times in the 
works of St. Augustine, little of interest is known about him. 
According to the editor of the Patrologia Latina No. 33 he was 
“undoubtedly ordained in locum Proculeiant” who was still alive 
in 403 A.D. Although St. Augustine addressed a long letter to 


10 Serm. 355. 2; cf. also Serm. de Rusticiano. 

11 Prosper, Epitoma, anno 395; Cassiodorus, Chronica, no. 1160 
(Chronica Minora, Mommsen, II. p. 154). For a contemporary estimate 
of his character see Paulinus of Nola, Epist. 7. 2. 

12 Aug. Epist. 35. 

13 Aug. Epist. 33. See also Epist. 34; 35; Contra Cresconium, 111. 
48. 53. 

14 Aug. Epist. 88. 6-7. For a somewhat fuller account of this bishop see 
Smith & Wace, Dict. of Christian Biography. 

15 P.L. no. 33. col. 405. note d; St. Augustine wrote to Macrobius two 


C37). 


him,-the contents of this letter are of interest for a study of 
Donatism rather than for a study which deals primarily with the 
history of Hippo Regius. 

Heraclius, the successor of St. Augustine, was the last bishop 
of Hippo Regius in antiquity about whom we know. An account 
of his election in 426 A.D. has come down to us and a transla- 
tion of it is given in a note to this chapter because it is of 
considerable interest as ‘an important source of our information 
about Heraclius and because from it can be gained some idea of 
the procedure of the Church of that time and place in such 
matters. 

If with the editor of the Patrologia Latina No. 39, we iden- 
tify this Heraclius (or Eraclius) with the Eraclius diaconus 
mentioned by St. Augustine in Sermo 356, Section 7, we may 
conclude that St. Augustine’s successor was religious from his 
youth, was humane—for he freed his slaves—and that it was his 
desire to give his goods to the Church. A reading of this passage 
may also lead us to applaud the piety of the heir and the wisdom 
of the bishop, but it will diminish our opinion of Heraclius’ 
business ability. 

It was Heraclius who brought about the debate between 
St. Augustine and the Arian bishop, Maximinus.*® 


letters, nos. 106 & 108. This Donatist bishop is mentioned also in letters 
nos. 107 & 139; and in a sermon attributed to St. Augustine (P.L. no. 43. 
col. 755). See also Mansi Collectio, IV. 123. no. 138. See also article in 
Smith & Wace, Dictionary. 

16 Coll. cum Max. For a sermon by Heraclius see P.L. no. 39. col. 
1717. Cf. also Smith & Wace, Dictionary, under Eraclius and under Maxi- 
minus, 


C 38 J 


NOTE AY THE ELECTION OF HERACLIUS 


Among Augustine’s letters in the Patrologia Latina is: Acta 
Ecclesiastica seu Epistola ccxiu. The heading is: Ecclesiastica 
Gesta a B. Augustino confecta in designando ERACLIO qui 
ipsi in episcopatu succederet, atque interim senem aliqua parte 
curarum sublevaret. 

The account itself may be translated as folluws: 

When the most glorious Theodosius was consul for the 
twelfth time and Valentinian Augustus was consul for the sec- 
ond time, on the twenty-sixth of September,’ after the bishop 
Augustine, together with Religianus and Martinianus his fel- 
low bishops, had met in the Hippo-regian church of “Peace” in 
company with the priests Saturninus, Leporius, Barnabus, For- 
tunatianus, Rusticus, Lazarus, and Eraclius, in the presence 
of the clergy and many people, the bishop Augustine said: 

“Dearly beloved, we must accomplish without any delay that 
which I promised to you yesterday and on account of which I 
desired you to assemble yourselves together in greater num- 
bers—and I see that you have come together in greater num- 
bers. Indeed you are less attentive for anything else I might 
wish to say to you because you are intent on that. 

“We are all mortal in this life and the last day of this life is 
always uncertain for every man; but yet in infancy childhood 
is expected, and in childhood adolescence is expected, and in 
adolescence youth is expected, and in youth maturity is ex- 
pected, and in maturity old age is expected. Whether this will 
come about is uncertain, still there is that which may be ex- 
pected. Old age, however, does not have another period of life 
to expect ; it is even uncertain how long old age itself will last 
for a man. This, however, is certain, that no age remains which 
can succeed old age. 

“Because God willed it, I came to this city with the vigor of 
youth; but still my youth has passed and I have grown old. | 
know that after the deaths of bishops it often happens that 
churches are disturbed by ambitious and contentious men; and, 
as far as in me lies, I ought to provide against the occurrence 
in this city of that which I have often experienced and on ac- 


1 Anno 426. 


[304 


count of which I have grieved. As you know, dearly beloved, I 
have recently been in the Church at Milevum; for the brethren 
and especially the servants of God, who are there, besought 
me to come; because, after the death of Severus of blessed mem- 
ory—my brother and fellow bishop—some trouble there was 
feared. I went; and in what manner the Lord wished, He helped 
us in His mercy, so that they peaceably received as their bishop 
him whom their former’bishop had designated while still alive. 
For they willingly embraced the wish of their bishop, who had 
died and gone on before, when this wish became known to them. 
Still there was another less important fact on account of which 
some were saddened namely because brother Severus believed 
that it could suffice that he name his successor among the clergy 
and because for that reason he did not address the people. As a 
result there was sadness on the part of some. Why should I 
say more? He was pleasing to God; sadness was put to flight; 
joy took its place; he, whom the preceding bishop had named, 
was ordained bishop. 

“Therefore, that no one may complain about me, I bring to 
the notice of all of you my choice, which I believe is God’s also. 
I choose the priest Eraclius as my successor.” 

The people cried out: “Thanks to God, praise to Christ 
(twenty-three times). Hear, O Christ, life to Augustine (six- 
teen times). Thou art our father, thou our bishop (eight 
times ).” 

And when there was silence the bishop Augustine said: 
“There is no need for me to say anything in his praise; I ap- 
plaud his wisdom and I spare his modesty; it is sufficient that 
you know him. And I say I wish this next thing, because I 
know you wish it; and if I was ignorant of it before, I should 
prove it today. This, therefore, I desire; this I ask from the 
Lord our God with fervent prayers even now in chilly age. 
I exhort you, I admonish you, I entreat you, that you pray with 
me for this, and my prayer is that in the peace of Christ God 
may confirm in the unified and inspired minds of all of you 
that which He has done among us. And may He who sent him 
to me keep him, may He keep him safe, may He keep him blame- 
less that he, who makes joy for me while living, may fill my 
place when dead. 

“As you see, the notaries of the church are taking down 
what we say; they are taking down what you say; and my 
discourse and your acclamations fall not to earth. To speak 


[ 40 ] 


more plainly; we are now completing Ecclesiastical Transac- 
tions ; for thus I wish this confirmed as far as lies in the power 
of men.” 

The people cried out thirty-six times: “Thanks to God, praise 
to Christ. Hear, O Christ, life to Augustine (thirteen times). 
Thou art our father, thou our bishop (eight times). He is 
worthy and just (twenty times). Well deserving, well worthy 
(five times). He is worthy and just (six times).” 

And when there was silence the bishop Augustine said: 
“Therefore, as I said, I desire my choice and your choice con- 
firmed by the Ecclesiastical Transactions, as far as lies in the 
power of men; but, as for that which lies in the secret will of 
the Almighty, let us all, as I said, pray that God will confirm 
that which He has done among us.” 

The people cried out: “We give thanks for thy judgment 
(sixteen times). So be it, so be it (twelve times). Thou art our 
father, thou, Eraclius, our bishop (six times).” 

And when there was silence, the bishop Augustine said: “I 
know that which you, also, know, but I am unwilling that that 
which was done in my case should be done in his case. Moreover 
many of you know what was done. They only do not know who, 
at that time, either were not yet born, or had not yet attained 
to the age of knowledge. While the old man Valerius, father of 
blessed memory and my bishop, was still in the flesh, I was 
ordained bishop, but I sat with him—a thing I did not know had 
been forbidden by the Council of Nicaea; and he himself did not 
know it. And so Iam unwilling that that which was censured in 
me be censured in my son.” 

The people cried out : “Thanks to God, praise to Christ (thir- 
teen times).” 

And when there was silence, the bishop Augustine said: “He 
will remain a priest as he is and, when God shall wish it, he will 
be bishop. And now by the help of the mercy of Christ I am 
about to do clearly what I have not even yet done. You know 
what I wished to do several years ago, and you did not permit it. 

“Tt seemed good to me and to you, on account of the study 
of the Scriptures which the brethren and fathers, my fellow 
bishops, thought fit to impose upon me at the two councils of 
Numidia and Carthage, that no one should disturb me for five 
days (a week). The Transactions were completed, it was your 
pleasure, you approved; your pleasure and your approval were 
recorded. For a short time the agreement was kept with me, but 


[ 41 J 


afterwards it was violently broken and I am not allowed the 
leisure which I desire; before noon and after noon I am involved 
in human affairs. I beseech you and constrain you through 
Christ that you suffer me to pass on the burdens of my affairs 
to this young man, that is, to the priest Eraclius whom I this 
day choose in the name of Christ to succeed me as bishop.” 

The people cried out: “We give thanks for thy judgment 
(twenty-six times).” 

And when there was silence, the bishop Augustine said: “I 
give thanks to the Lord our God for your charity and good-will; 
nay more | thank God for this thing. Therefore, brethren, 
whatever was brought to me, let it be taken to him; when he 
shall have need of counsel I will not refuse my aid; far be it 
that I should withdraw it. Still whatever was brought to me, 
let it be taken to him. Either let him himself consult me, if per- 
chance he shall not find that which he ought to do, or let him 
ask as a helper an elder whom he knows both in order that 
nothing may be lacking to you and finally, if God shall grant me 
some little space of this life, that I may not betray my own life, 
howsoever short it be, to sloth, nor give it over to laziness, but 
that, as far as he himself permits and allows, I may spend it on 
the Holy Scriptures, and this will profit him and through him 
it also will profit you. Therefore let no one envy my leisure be- 
cause my leisure has a mighty task. I see that I have done with 
you all that I should do in regard to that on account of which I 
summoned you. Finally I ask this: that you, who can do it, deign 
to subscribe to these Transactions. At this point I am in need 
of your answer; let me have your answer; acclaim something in 
regard to this assent.” 

The people cried out: “So be it, so be it (twenty-five times). 
It is worthy, it is just (twenty-eight times). So be it, so be it 
(fourteen times). He has long been worthy, long deserving 
(twenty-five times). We give thanks for thy judgment (thirteen 
times). Hear, O Christ, preserve Eraclius (eighteen times).” 

And when there was silence the bishop Augustine said: “It is 
well that we are able to attend to the affairs which concern the 
Lord near the time of His sacrifice and, in this our hour of 
prayer, I especially enjoin upon you, dearly beloved, that you 
lay aside your plans and your business and that you pour forth 
a prayer to the Lord for this church, for me, and for the priest 
Eraclius.” 


[ 42 ] 


COUNCILS 


Because of the incomplete and untrustworthy character of 
much of the material upon which an account of the Councils of 
Hippo Regius must be based, it is impossible to present the re- 
sults of an investigation of them with any considerable satisfac- 
tion or confidence. It appears that, in addition to the synod 
which has already been described,’ three church councils were 
held in this city. 

The first of these councils was held in the secretarium of the 
Basilica Pacis on the eighth day of October in the year 
393 which was also the ninth year of the pontificate of Siri- 
cius and the fifteenth of the reign of the Emperor Theodo- 
sius.2, According to St. Augustine, who attended as a priest, 
it was a plenarium totius Africae Concilium.® It is not certain 
in just what sense this expression of St. Augustine should be 
taken, but in regard to the importance of the council there can 
be little doubt. Its purpose was probably to settle certain ques- 
tions of church discipline* and, if this was its purpose, it was 
eminently successful, for it not only laid the foundations of the 
discipline of the African Church,® but was the source from 
which, tamquam archetypo quodam, all succeeding African 
councils borrowed much.°® 

Since no complete or really satisfactory records of this coun- 
cil have survived, it will be of some interest to bring together 
what is known about its proceedings and decisions. 

In the first place St. Augustine delivered at this council a dis- 
course De Fide et Symbolo which he afterwards wrote out at 
the request of his friends.” This treatise has survived and oc- 
cupies about seven and a half pages in the Patrologia Latina.*® 


1 See pp. 38 ff. 

2 Mansi, Collectio, III. 849; Dionysius Exiguus (P.L. no. 67. col. 193). 

8 Aug. Retractiones, 1. 17; this is the correct reference, not Possidius, 
Vita, 7, as given by Mansi (Collectio, III. 849) and Hefele (History of 
the Church Councils—English translation by Oxenham, II. p. 395). 

4 Mansi, Collectio, III. 918. 

5 ibid. III. goo. 

8 ibid. III. 840. 

7 Aug. Retractiones, I. 17. 

8 no. 40. col. 181 ff. 


C 43 J 


It deals with the problems of the Creation, the Trinity, the 
Catholic Church, the Remission of Sins, and the Resurrection. 

In the second place, two decisions of a Council of Hippo, 
which are attributed to the first Council of Hippo Regius by 
Mansi° and by Hefele,?® were read and renewed" by an African 
council which was held at Carthage in 525 A.D.” The first of 
these decisions is in regard to the observance of Easter and is 
found in a briefer form in the epitome of the canons of the 
first Council of Hippo.*? The second has been summarized by 
Hefele as follows :** “The same Bishop Caecilian, in union with 
his colleague Honoratus, also a Mauretanian, made a second 
proposition, that the Bishop of Sitifi should be appointed epi- 
scopus primae sedis for Mauretania. He was to be chosen by the 
Provincial Synod, but his election was to be signified to the 
Bishop of Carthage, from whom he would receive instructions. 
Aurelius of Carthage brought this question also under discus- 
sion. The Bishops, Epigonius of Bulla Regia and Megalius 
of Calama in Numidia, took part in it, and it was at last 
unanimously resolved that each province might have its epi- 
Scopus primae sedis, on condition that none should be appointed 
without the knowledge of the Bishop of ‘Carthage, so that the au- 
thority of his See should remain intact. These bishops were also 
always to give account of their acts to the bishop of Carthage.” 

In the third place, some of the canons of this council were 
inserted in the Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Africanae’® which 
was compiled in the year 419 A.D.*® According to Mansi** and 
Hardouin*® they are numbers twenty-eight to thirty-three of 
this collection; but this attribution is doubtful and Boudinhon 
has argued with great plausibility that numbers twenty-nine to 
thirty-three should be assigned not to the first but to the third 
Council of Hippo Regius. Numbers twenty-eight to thirty-three 
of the African Codex may be summarized as follows: 


9 Collectio, III. 850. 

10 Councils, II. p. 401. 

11 Mansi, Collectio, VIII. 643 ff. 
12 ¢bid. VIII. 635. 

13 See below, pp. 47 ff. 

14 Councils, II. p. 401. 

15 Mansi, Collectio, III. 730. 

16 ibid, III. 690. 

17 ibid. III. 730. 

18 Collectio Conciliorum, I. 954. 


C 44 J 


XXVIII. That priests, deacons, or clerics, who in cases of 
their own have thought it necessary to appeal to transmarine 
courts, shall by no means be received to communion. 

XXIX. That if anyone who has been excommunicated pre- 
sumes to communicate before his hearing, he shall have pro- 
nounced himself guilty by so doing.*® 

XXX. That, if accuser or accused fears violence in the place 
where the accuser lives, he shall for the completion of his case 
choose a place which is near and to which it will not be difficult 
to summon the witnesses.”° 

XXXI. That clerics or deacons, who have been disobedient to 
the bishops who have advanced them, shall not be permitted to 
officiate even in their former offices. 

XXXII. That, if a cleric who was without property at the 
time of his ordination, afterwards acquires property, this prop- 
erty shall be subject to the power of the Church.”+ 

XXXIII. (a) That priests shall not dispose of church prop- 
erty without the consent of their bishops.” 

(b) That bishops shall not dispose of church property unknown 
to the council or their priests.** 

(c) That, unless it be necessary, bishops shall not expend the 
church property which is in their charge.** 

Furthermore it is the opinion of Hardouin?® and of Mansi*® 
that the fifty-second and seventy-third canons and the introduc- 
tion to the ninety-fifth canon of the same African Codex are 
drawn from this first Council of Hippo. The first of these pas- 
sages is de visitandis provincus, and the others deal with the 
observance of Easter. 

In the fourth place and finally, a breviary of the statutes, or 
canons, of this council has been preserved with the proceedings 
of the third Council of Carthage which was held in the year 
397.27 Although two versions of this breviary were long known,” 


19 Fulgentius Ferrandus, Breviatio Canonum, 54 (P.L. no. 67.) 
20 ibid. 198. 

21 ibid. 35. 

22 ibid. 95. 

23 ibid. 47. 

24 ibid. 38. 

25 Collectio Conciliorum, I. 954. 

26 Collectio, III. 850. 

27 ibid. III. 875 ff; Prosper, Epitoma, anno 397. 

28 Mansi, Collectio, III. 893 ff. 


[45 J 


a satisfactory recension did not exist in print until the Baller- 
ini recovered from excellent and theretofore apparently un- 
known codices what is now considered to be the original of this 
breviary.*® It may be found in Mansi*® and is in two parts, the 
first of which contains some of the proceedings of the council, 
while the second is made up of the breviary proper. This im- 
portant record may be rendered into English as follows: 

“The Statutes of the Council of Hippo, abridged and certain 
of them compared with the Byzacene bishops at the Council of 
Carthage and diligently studied, are as follows: 

“The Profession of Faith of the Council of Nicaea was recited 
and confirmed. It is as follows: We believe in one God the 
Father Almighty, Maker of things visible and invisible; and in 
one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, the only begotten Son of 
the Father—that is the substance of the Father—,God of God, 
Light of Light, Very God of Very God, born not made, of one 
substance with the Father—which the Greeks call omousion—, by 
whom all things were made whether in heaven or in earth; who 
for us men and for our salvation descended, became incarnate, 
and was made man through the Virgin Mary, suffered and rose 
the third day, ascended to heaven and will come to judge the quick 
and the dead; and in the Holy Ghost. Those moreover who say 
that He was when He was not, and that before He was born 
He was not; and those who say that the Son of God is mutable 
and changeable because He was made out of non-existent things 
or out of a foreign substance, them the Catholic Church and the 
Apostolic Discipline anathematize. 

“Moreover it has been decided on account of an error which is 
wont often to arise, that all the African provinces shall take 
care to receive from the Church at Carthage the day of the 
observance of Easter. 

“Cresconius, Bishop of Villa Regis, who was said to have held 
the Church of Tubunae, was ordered to be content with his own 
congregation, that is of the Church of Villa Regis, and after 
this it was decided that none should usurp the congregations of 
others. 

Since she asked this at the instigation of the Moors, Maure- 
tania Sitifensis was allowed to have a primate of her own. 

“Moreover all the bishops of the first sees have declared that 


2° Mansi, Collectio, III. 909 ff; Hefele, Councils, II. p. 306. 
80 Collectio, III. 917 ff. 


[ 46 ] 


the primates of their provinces shall be appointed in accordance 
with the advice of the Bishop of Carthage, if there is any dis- 
agreement. 

(The Abridgment of the Statutes begins. ) 
“TI. That lectors shall not pronounce the salutation to the 
people. And that before the age of twenty-five years clerics shall 
not be ordained nor virgins consecrated. That those who have 
been for the first time instructed in the Sacred Scriptures or 
those who have been trained in them from childhood shall be 
promoted to the clerical rank upon profession and affirmation 
of faith. 
“TJ. That the decrees of the council shall be previously en- 
joined by their ordainers upon those ordained bishops or clerics 
in order that they may not say that they have done anything con- 
trary to the statutes of the council. 
“III. Moreover that during the very holy days of Easter no 
sacrament shall be given to the catechumens except the accus- 
tomed salt ; because, if the faithful exchange no sacrament dur- 
ing those days, neither should the catechumens exchange any. 
“TV. That the Eucharist shall not be given to the bodies of the 
dead because the Lord said: Take and eat; but dead bodies can 
neither take nor eat. Moreover that precaution must be taken 
that the weakness of the brethren shall not think that the dead 
too can be baptized, when they see that the Eucharist is not 
given to the dead. 
“V. That on account of ecclesiastical cases which are often pro- 
longed to the calamity of the congregations, a council shall be 
called each year and to it all provinces, which have sees of the 
first rank, shall each send three representatives from their own 
councils so that the assembly may be of full authority but to its 
hosts both less troublesome and less expensive. And that from 
Tripolis, on account of the poverty of its bishops, only one 
bishop shall come. 
“VI. That when a bishop is accused, the accuser shall bring the 
case before the primate of the province of the accused; and that 
he against whom a charge is lodged shall not be deprived of 
communion unless, when summoned to plead his case by letters 
of the primate, he has not even appeared—that is, within the 
space of a month from that day on which it has been decided 
that he received the letters. But that, if he shall prove any true 
and compelling reasons on account of which it is manifest that 


Bevo 


he could not appear, he shall within the next month have a fresh 
opportunity of pleading his case. But that after the second 
month he shall not communicate until after he has been ac- 
quitted. 

“VII. However, that, if he is unwilling to appear at the annual 
general council so that even there his case may be closed, he 
shall be considered to have pronounced against himself a sen- 
tence of condemnation. And that during the time that he does 
not communicate, he shall, of course, not communicate in his 
own congregation either. Moreover, that, if his accuser shall not 
be absent on any of the days of the pleading of the case, he shall 
not be deprived of communion, but, if he is ever absent, the 
bishop shall be restored to communion and the accuser himself 
shall be deprived of it; on the condition, however, that the op- 
portunity of continuing his prosecution shall not be taken away 
from him if he shall prove that he was not unwilling to appear 
on the (appointed) day but was unable to do so. This indeed 
was decided in order that, if, when a man has begun to bring an 
action in a court of bishops, the character of the accuser is 
culpable, he shall not be permitted to make an accusation or 
prosecute a case unless he wishes to plead a personal and not an 
ecclesiastical case. 

“VIII. Moreover, that, if priests or deacons are accused,— 
when the prescribed number of colleagues has been added to 
them from neighboring localities (that is; in the case of a priest 
five, in the case of a deacon two)—, their own bishops shall try 
the case, observing the same rules in regard to the days or post- 
ponements, or deprivation of communion and of examination of 
the character of the accusers and the accused. Furthermore, 
that the bishop of the place shall by himself hear and settle the 
cases of all others. 

“TX. And, indeed, that, if a bishop ora cleric, when a charge is 
made against him in the Church or when a civil case is brought, 
forsakes the ecclesiastical courts and attempts to be cleared by 
the public courts, he shall lose his office even if the case is de- 
cided in his favor— that is in a criminal case. But that in a civil 
case he shall lose what he has won if he wishes to retain his 
office, because he, to whom the authority of the Church is every- 
where open for choosing judges, judges himself unworthy of 
fraternal fellowship, if, by thinking ill of the whole Church, he 
asks the aid of a civil trial: because the apostle directs that the 


C 48 J 


cases of private Christians be brought before the Church and 
there determined. 

“X. This, also, was decided that, if an appeal is made from 
certain ecclesiastical judges to other ecclesiastical judges of 
higher authority, it shall not injure the judges whose sentence is 
not sustained unless they can be proved to have given judgment 
with hostile bias or to have been corrupted by some favoritism 
or hope of gain. But that, if arbiters have been appointed with 
the consent of both parties, an appeal may not be made even 
from a number smaller than that prescribed. 

“XI. That, inasmuch as the sons of bishops and clerics are 
excluded from shows, they shall neither produce nor attend 
secular shows. 

“XII. That the sons of bishops or of any clerics shall not be 
joined in marriage to pagans, or even to heretics and schis- 
matics. 

“XIII. That bishops, or clerics, shall not permit their sons to go 
out from their power by making them independent unless they 
are sure in regard to both their morals and their maturity so that 
they can be responsible for their own sins. 

“XIV. That bishops or clerics shall not confer upon those who 
are not Catholic Christians—even if they are their kinsmen— 
any of their possessions either by gift or by will. 

“XV. That bishops, priests, and deacons shall not be the man- 
agers or agents of private parties nor shall they seek a liveli- 
hood in any business such that it is necessary for them to go 
abroad or be called away from their ecclesiastical duties. 

“XVI. That women who are not related to them shall not live 
with any of the clerics at all but only their mothers, grand- 
mothers, paternal and maternal aunts, and sisters, and the 
daughters of brothers or of sisters, and whoever of the house- 
hold then lived with them for some domestic purpose even be- 
fore they were ordained, or if the sons have married wives after 
the ordination of their fathers, or if there are in the house no 
_ servants whom they can hire and it is necessary to hire them 
elsewhere. 

“XVII. That bishops, priests, and deacons shall not be or- 
dained before they have made Catholic Christians of all those 
who are in their homes. 

“XVIII. That lectors shall read until the age of puberty, but 


[ 49 J 


then shall not read unless they guard their chastity by marrying 
or unless they make a vow of continence. 

“XIX. That no one shall dare to retain or promote in a church 
entrusted to him the cleric of another except with the consent of 
his (i.e. the cleric’s) bishop. Moreover that even lectors shall 
retain the name of clerics. 

“XX. That no one shall be ordained unless he has been ap- 
proved either by episcopal examination or by the testimony of 
the people. ‘ 

“XXI. That in prayer no one shall name the Father instead of 
the Son, or the Son instead of the Father. And that before the 
altar the prayer shall always be made to the Father. And that 
whoever copies for himself prayers from an outside source shall 
not use them, unless he has first gone over them with better-in- 
structed brethren. 

“XXII. That no cleric shall receive in return from anyone 
more than he has loaned to him, whether he gives him money or 
anything else whatever. 

“XXIII. That in the Sacraments of the Body and Blood of the 
Lord nothing more shall be given than what the Lord Himself 
handed down, that is, the bread and the wine mixed with water. 
(But the first-fruits, or the honey, and the milk which is accus- 
tomed to be offered on one most solemn day as the mystery of 
the children, even though they are offered on the altar, still have 
their own proper benediction so that they are differentiated from 
the Sacrament of the Blood and Body of the Lord). And that 
nothing more of the first-fruits shall be offered than of the vine 
and of the grain. 

“XXIV. That clerics under a vow of chastity (continentes) 
shall not visit widows or virgins except by the order or permis- 
sion of their bishops or priests. And they shall not do this alone 
but with (other) clerics or with those with whom the bishop or 
priest has ordered. And that the bishops themselves or the 
priests shall not have access to women of this kind unaccom- 
panied, but when either clerics or some other sober Christians 
are present. 

“XXV. That a ‘bishop of the first rank’ (primae sedis) shall 
not be called ‘prince of the priests,’ or ‘chief priest’ or anything 
of this kind but only ‘bishop of the first rank.’ 

“XXVI. That clerics shall not enter taverns to eat or drink, 
except when a journey makes this necessary. 


[ 50 ] 


“XXVII. That bishops shall not set out to cross the sea, ex- 
cept after consultation with the bishop of the first rank of the 
province of each; especially in order that they may get from 
him their passports. Moreover that, hereafter, letters of the 
council are to be sent to the bishops across the sea. 

“XXVIII. That the sacraments of the altar shall be celebrated 
only by those who have fasted, except on the anniversary of 
the day on which the Feast of the Lord is celebrated. For, if a 
memorial service of any of the dead, either of the bishops, or of 
the clerics, or of any others, must take place in the afternoon, 
it shall be done with prayers only, if those doing it be found to 
have eaten already. 

“XXIX. That no bishops or clerics shall feast together in the 
church, except when perchance it is necessary for them to act 
as hosts there in refreshing travellers, and that the people shall 
be excluded as far as possible from even these banquets. 
“XXX. That the times of penance shall be appointed to the 
penitents by the judgment of the bishop in accordance with the 
difference of their sins. That priests shall not absolve penitents 
without consulting the bishop, except when the bishop is absent 
and the case is urgent. Moreover, that, because the whole church 
knows the sin, the laying on of hands should be in the apse of 
the church in the case of any penitent whose offense is public 
and widely known. 

“XXXI. That, when holy virgins are bereft of their parents by 
whom they were guarded, they shall be entrusted to respectable 
women by the wisdom of the bishop or the priest in order that 
these women living with them may in turn guard them that 
they injure not the good repute of the church by wandering 
about. 

“XXXII. That the sick, if unable to reply for themselves, shall 
be baptized when those who are related to them have at their 
own peril given testimony that it was their wish. 

“XXXII. That grace and reconciliation shall not be denied to 
actors and apostates who have been converted or who have re- 
turned to the Lord. 

“XXXIV. That a priest shall not consecrate virgins without 
consulting his bishop and he shall never make the Chrism. 
“XXXV. That clerics shall not tarry in a strange city unless 
the bishop of the place or the priests of the place consider their 
reasons sufficient. 


Bek Ba 


“XXXVI. That, besides the canonical Scriptures, nothing shall 
be read in the church under the name of the Holy Scriptures. 
Moreover the canonical Scriptures are: Genesis, Exodus, Levit- 
icus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Jesus the Son of Nave, Judges, 
Ruth, four books of the Kings, two books of Chronicles, 
Job, the Psalter of David, five books of Solomon, twelve books 
of the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobit, Esther, 
two books of Esdras, two books of the Maccabees; and of the 
New Testament: the four books of the Gospels, one book of the 
Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Paul the Apostle to- 
gether with the Epistle of the same to the Hebrews, two letters 
of Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, (and) the 
Apocalypse of John; on condition that the Church across the 
sea shall be consulted in regard to the confirmation of this canon. 
That it shall also be permissible to read the sufferings of the 
Martyrs when their anniversary days are celebrated. 
“XXXVII. It was decided, moreover, that, inasmuch as it was 
decreed by the preceding councils that none of the Donatists 
should be received by us and retain their rank but should be 
received into the number of the laity on account of the salvation 
which must be denied to no one (moreover the churches in 
Africa suffer such lack of ordained clerics that some places are 
altogether deserted )—that for this reason what has already been 
decreed shall be observed in regard to these persons but that 
those shall be excepted who, it is manifest, have not been baptized 
or who wish to come over to the Catholic Communion with their 
flocks. For, as it is written: 7f two Christians are gathered to- 
gether they shall obtain whatever they ask, it must not be 
doubted that, when the offense of the schism of all the people 
has been removed, it is fitting that concord, which has been 
brought back to the unity of peace, shall obtain from the mercy 
of the Lord that by the compensation of this peace and by the 
sacrifice of charity the sins shall be washed away which they, 
following the authority of their elders, have committed through 
the repetition of baptism. But it was decided that this should 
not be adopted until the Church across the sea has been con- 
sulted in regard to it. 

“Concerning the Donatists it was decided that we shall con- 
sult the brethren and our fellow bishops, Siricius and Sim- 
plicianus, concerning those children alone who have been bap- 
tized by these Donatists in order that inasmuch as they did not 


ee 


act by their own judgment, they may not, when they have been 
converted to the Church by the saving purpose of God, be pre- 
vented by the error of their parents from being advanced as 
ministers of the Sacred Altar.” 

The translation of the breviary of the canons of the first 
Council of Hippo Regius may be ended at this point inasmuch 
as the two remaining canons in the edition of the Ballerini do 
not belong to this council*? as the editors themselves admit.*? 

The reader who would pursue further the study of this 
council is referred to the collections of Hardouin and of Mansi 
for the text of the canons in the original languages and for cross 
references and notes on the text.** Further notes may be found 
in Dom Leclercq’s French translation of Hefele’s Concilien- 
geschichte.** The French scholar has not only made Hefele’s 
valuable work available in a more readable form, but has furn- 
ished the translation with many illuminating notes. 

The material for an account of the first Council of Hippo 
was far from complete, but that which is even probably known 
about the second council which was held there is so little that 
it can be told in a single sentence. In the year 395 a council was 
held at Hippo Regius and to it one canon has been ascribed, to 
wit :* “That bishops, or priests shall not, without first giving 
their reasons, transfer to other places goods which are in the 
places where they were ordained.’’*° 

A third council was held at Hippo Regius in the Basilica 
Leontina on the twenty-fourth of September 427.°7 Mansi’s as- 
signment of canons to this council will be passed over as it is 
very distinctly inferior to the ingenious and careful study of 
Boudinhon. Boudinhon’s arguments and his partial recon- 
struction of the proceedings of this council—together with 
tables and full references to his sources—may be found in Ap- 
pendix V of the second volume of Leclercq’s translation of 


$1 Hefele, Histoire (tr. Leclercq), IJ. 1. p. 89. note I. 

82 Mansi, Collectio, III. 937. note 10. 

83 See the places referred to in the notes to the first part of this section. 

84 Histoire des conciles, II. 1. pp. 82-91. 

35 Mansi, Collectio, III. 859. 

86 Cf, Ferrandus, no. 34. In regard either to the first or the second of 
these councils cf. Prosper, Epitoma, anno 397. 

37 Mansi, Collectio, IV. 539. 


C53 J 


Hefele’s Conciliengeschichte. This reconstruction is briefly as 
follows: 
1. After the council had assembled, the bishop Aurelius said; 
“Your Holinesses know well that it was due to necessity that 
the solemn convention of this council did not take place for 
two years. Now because it has come to pass in the sure order 
of things that by the help of God our holy brother and fellow 
bishop Augustine should willingly receive this council in be- 
half of his religion and because the Lord had ordered us to 
assemble together, and because it has happened that I who am 
unworthy should greet you all face to face, for these reasons 
let us do something in the interest of the Church so that those 
things which are born in us, or to which we must listen shall 
be heeded lest cases grow to worse which should have been 
dismissed long ago. Therefore, there is need that those ecclesi- 
astical cases which have to do with discipline should be handled.” 
The whole council said: “We willingly pay attention in order 
that this may come to pass.” 
2. The aged Aurelius said: “Let the decisions of the previous 
councils be read and inserted in the proceedings of the present 
council.” 
3. (See above,®® the twenty-ninth canon of the Codex, and 
Hefele-Leclercq-Boudinhon, I1.2.p.1306). 
4. (See above, canon thirty of the Codex, and Boudinhon, /.c.). 
5. (See above, canon thirty-one of the Codex, and Boudinhon, 
ory 
6. That bishops or priests shall not transfer church property 
from one place to another without first assigning reason. (See 
also Boudinhon, l.c. p. 1307). 
7. (See above, canon thirty-two of the Codex, and Boudinhon, 


REE 
8. (See above, canon thirty-three of the Codex, and Boudinhon, 


hes) 
9. (See above, canon thirty-three of the Codex, and Boudinhon, 
hep. 1308)} 
10. Each (of the bishops) confirmed these statutes with his 
own signature: Aurelius, Simplicius, Augustinus, etc. 

From the foregoing account of the Councils of Hippo Regius 
it is evident that three councils were held there in antiquity 
and that the dates of these councils and the places at which 


88 p. 45. 


C 54] 


they were held are fairly well established. It is also evident that 
although no complete records of these councils have survived, 
a good deal of importance is known with a fair degree of cer- 
tainty about the first council, that practically nothing of inter- 
est is known in regard to the second, and that but little can be 
asserted about the third with any amount of assurance as to its 
correctness, although if Boudinhon’s arguments are correct— 
and this is probable—certain facts of some interest are known 
about it. 


bested 


MILITARY HISTORY 


Although the history of Hippo Regius probably extended 
over a period of approximately 2000 years and at or near it 
many military events ofnterest doubtless occurred during these 
centuries, still the memory of but few such events has survived 
and the notices even of these are disappointingly meager. In 
the case of language and of several other topics it has been 
possible to supplement the scanty specific references by means 
of probable or necessary inferences, but in the case of the 
military history it is for obvious reasons better to confine the 
account to information derived from explicit statements and 
not to attempt to amplify it inferentially or conjecturally from 
the general history of the district. The civil wars which are 
known to have taken place in Africa in the time of the Gordians, 
the raids of native chieftains into the coastal regions, and other 
similar disturbances of the peace of North Africa will, accord- 
ingly, be passed over in silence and the ensuing account will 
consist of a relation of those military operations which are 
recorded to have taken place at or near this ancient city. Such 
events were not numerous and were for the most part far 
separated in time. 

The problem of the first military operations which are re- 
corded as having been carried out near a place, supposedly 
Hippo Regius, is as follows: Diodorus states that Agathocles 
(of Syracuse) captured tHv “Irrov xadovpévny dxpav. + This event 
took place in the year 307-6 B.C.? A few chapters later he says 
that Eumachus captured rv évoualopévny dxpav Irrov tiv 6uovupov 
TH xEpobeion kata Kpatos tr “AyafoxXéovs----.> Inasmuch as the 
city captured by Agathocles was undoubtedly Hippo Di- 
arrhytus* and as Ptolemy mentions a “Immov dxpa © near Hip- 
po Regius, it is fair to conclude that Hippo Regius was cap- 
tured by Eumachus in the closing years of the fourth cen- 
tury before Christ. The identification of “Imwov dxpa with Hippo 


ae ee. 

2 Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopddie, I. 1. 753. 
2 <x. 57. 6, 

ibid. xx. 55. 

5 Geographia, Iv. 3. 2 (ed. Miller, IT. p. 615). 


[ 56 ] 


Regius has been questioned® but does not present serious diff- 
culties and seems worthy of credence. 

The Carthaginian mercenaries revolted after the first Punic 
War. Nepos says that after this revolt had been quelled, Hamil- 
car recovered all of the oppida abalienata for Carthage, and 
among them Utica and Hippo.? From the context it is much 
more probable that this reference is to Hippo Diarrhytus than 
that it is to Hippo Regius. 

During the Hannibalic War, in the year 205 B.C., Gaius 
Laelius arrived at Hippo Regius by night and at daybreak dis- 
embarked his soldiers and naval allies for the purpose of laying 
waste the surrounding territory. The inhabitants were acting 
carelessly as if in time of peace and as a result there was a great 
slaughter. When this was reported to Carthage it caused great 
consternation and a levy was made and a fleet was equipped 
against Laelius; but, before it could attack him, he had sailed 
away after receiving a visit from Masinissa and after loading 
his ships with booty.® 

During the Civil War in 46 B.C. a naval battle of some im- 
portance was fought near Hippo Regius. It came to pass in this 
manner: Scipio, Damasippus, Torquatus, and Plaetorius Rus- 
tianus, while sailing with their fleet for Spain, were long and 
severely storm-tossed and were finally borne into the harbor of 
Hippo Regius where the fleet of Sittius happened to be at that 
time. A naval battle ensued in which Sittius was victorious and 
the leaders of the opposing faction were killed.® 

Hippo Regius does not appear again in the records as the 
scene of military operations until the fifth century of our era, 
when “after the Vandals had sojourned nearly twenty years in 
Spain, came the day when Count Bonifatius, ill-requited for his 
loyalty to Placidia and her children,---sent that fatal embassy--- 
by which he invited the barbarians into Africa.”*° They crossed 
the Straits probably in 428 A.D.11 and spread misery and de- 


6 Gsell, Atlas, Texte, IX. p. 5; Tissot, Géographie, I. p. 540. 

7 Hamilcar, 2. 4. 

8 Livy, xxix. 3-5. 

® B. Afr. 96. 

10 Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, II. p. 225. See also Procopius, 
ALA T EE oh eB ie 

11 The exact date is disputed. A discussion of the sources and argu- 
ments may be found in Hodgkin, op. cit. II. pp. 290-292. 


Bey 


struction over the fair African provinces of the Roman Em- 
pire. 

According to the chronology of the Vandal rule in Africa 
which Hodgkin has worked out, these barbarian invaders en- 
tered Africa in 428 A.D. and their power finally fell before 
the victorious arms of Belisarius in the year 533.7° 

When Boniface learned that he had been the victim of a plot 
at the imperial court and that he would again be received with 
favor, “he repented of his act and of his agreement with the 
barbarians, and he besought them incessantly, promising them 
everything, to remove from Libya. But since they did not re- 
ceive his words with favor, but considered that they were being 
insulted, he was compelled to fight with them and, being de- 
feated in the battle, he retired to Hippo Regius, a strong city 
in the portion of Numidia that is on the sea. There the Vandals 
made camp under the leadership of Gizeric and began a siege.” *# 
St. Augustine and certain other bishops were shut up in the 
city during this siege which lasted nearly fourteen months.® 
During the siege St. Augustine fell sick and died on August 
twenty-eighth in the year 430.7° : 

There is some doubt and confusion in regard to the military 
vicissitudes which this city experienced in the months which 
followed shortly after the death of its greatest bishop. Our in- 
formation is derived from two sources, Possidius, who was in 
the city during the siege, and Procopius, who was a staff 
officer in the Byzantine armies which operated in Africa about 
one hundred years later. The problem is as follows: Possidius, 
writing between the years 432-439, says: “Of the innumerable 
churches he (Augustine) saw only three survive, namely those 
of Carthage, Hippo, and Cirta.----These cities too still stand, 
protected by human and divine aid, although after Augustine’s 
death the city of Hippo, abandoned by its inhabitants, was 
burned by the enemy.”*” Procopius says: “But after much time 


12 See Hodgkin, [taly and her Invaders, II. pp. 209-296; Procopius, 
B.V.; Victor Vitensis; Capreolus, I. (P.L. no. 53. col. 843 ff.). 

13 Hodgkin, op. cit. II. pp. 290-206. 

14 Procopius, B.V. 1. 3. 30 ff. (1 have availed myself of Prof. Dewing’s 
translation). 

15 Possidius, Vita, 28. 

16 Prosper, Epitoma, anno 430; Victor Vitensis, 1. I0. 

17 Vita, 28; see also Weiskotten, Introduction, p. 21. 


C58] 


had passed by, since they were unable to secure Hippo Regius 
either by force or by surrender, and since at the same time they 
were being pressed by hunger, they raised the siege.’’!8 

On the basis of these two passages the history of Hippo im- 
mediately after the death of St. Augustine may be recon- 
structed. To effect this reconstruction it will be necessary to 
assume; first that Possidius’ statement that Hippo was con- 
cremata refers to a partial rather than a total destruction by 
burning, and second that the flight of the inhabitants and the 
conflagration were not of sufficient magnitude or permanence 
to merit notice by a writer who lived a century after the event. 
These assumptions are neither improbable nor violent. In ac- 
cordance with them it may be stated that, in all probability, the 
siege of Hippo was abandoned by the Vandals in the summer 
of 431;*° that this abandonment was due to scarcity of pro- 
visions among the besiegers; and that shortly afterwards the 
inhabitants of the city fled and the Vandals returned and par- 
tially burned it. It appears to have been reinhabited not long 
afterwards as peace was there concluded with the Vandals in 
435 by Trigetius; Geiseric stayed there for three years; and, 
it wasagaina mwoAw éxvpdv at the time of the Byzantine in- 
vasion of North Africa.2° The walls, however, appear to 
have been razed by the Vandals. At the time of the recovery of 
Africa by the armies of Justinian they had not been rebuilt.?* 

Two incidents of considerable interest took place near Hippo 
Regius during the campaigns of Belisarius in Africa. 

In regard to the first of these Procopius writes as follows :?? 
“In the house of Gelimer there was a certain scribe named 
Boniface,?* a Libyan, and a native of Byzacium, a man exceed- 


1B 1757-13) 34: 

19 t4—3=11, August 430+11=—July+length of sickness, 431; Possidius 
Vita, 29; Prosper, Epitoma, anno 430. 

20 Prosper, Epitoma, anno 435; Procopius, B.V. 11. 4. 26; Epitome 
Carthaginiensis, no. 1339 (Chronica Minora, Mommsen, I. p. 497); 
Laterculus Regum Wandalorum et Alanorum (Chronica Minora, Momm- 
sen, III. p. 458) ; see also Papencordt, Geschichte, pp. 343-344. 

21Procopius, B.V. 1. 5. 8 ff. 

22BV.u. 4. 33 ff. (tr. Dewing); Victor Tunnunensis (P.L. no. 68. 
col. 954) says the following of Boniface: “Geilimer tyrannus multos 
nobilium Africae provinciae crudeliter exstinguit multorumque sub- 
stantias per Bonifacium tollit.” 

23 cf. Gsell, Inscriptions, I. no. 108(?). 


[59 J 


ingly faithful to Gelimer. At the beginning of this war Gelimer 
had put this Boniface on a very swift-sailing ship, and, placing 
all the royal treasure in it, commanded him to anchor in the 
harbour of Hippo Regius; and if he should see that the situation 
was not favorable to their side, he was to sail with all speed to 
Spain with the money, and go to Theudis, the leader of the 
Visigoths, where he was expecting to find safety for him- 
self also, should the fortune of war prove adverse for the 
Vandals. So Boniface, as long as he felt hope for the cause of 
the Vandals, remained there; but as soon as the battle in Trica- 
marum took place, with all the other events which have been 
related, he spread his canvas and sailed away just as Gelimer 
had directed him. But an opposing wind brought him back, 
much against his will, into the harbour of Hippo Regius. And 
since he had already heard that the enemy were somewhere 
near, he entreated the sailors with many promises to row with 
all their might for some other continent or for an island. But 
they were unable to do so, since a very severe storm had fallen 
upon them and the waves of the sea were rising to great height, 
seeing that it was the Tuscan sea, and then it occurred to them 
and to Boniface that, after all, God wished to give the money to 
the Romans and so was not allowing the ship to put out. How- 
ever, though they had got outside the harbour, they encountered 
great danger in bringing their ship back to anchorage. And 
when Belisarius arrived at Hippo Regius, Boniface sent some 
men to him. These he commanded to sit in a sanctuary, and they 
were to say that they had been sent by Boniface, who had the 
money of Gelimer, but to conceal the place where he was, until 
they should receive the pledges of Belisarius that upon giving 
Gelimer’s money he himself should escape free from harm, 
having all that was his own. These men, then, acted according 
to these instructions, and Belisarius was pleased at the good 
news and did not decline to take an oath. And sending some 
of his associates he took the treasure of Gelimer and released 
Boniface in possession of his own money and also with an 
enormous sum which he plundered from Gelimer’s treasure.” 

The second incident has to do with the final capture of 
Gelimer, the last king of the Vandals. After the Byzantine vic- 
tory at Tricamarum, Gelimer fled westward; Belisarius fol- 
lowed and, upon reaching Hippo Regius, learned that Gelimer 
had ascended the mountain Papua and could no longer be 


[ 60 ] 


captured by the Romans. ‘‘Now this mountain is situated at the 
extremity of Numidia and is exceedingly precipitous and 
climbed only with the greatest difficulty (for lofty cliffs rise up 
toward it from every side), and on it dwell barbarian Moors, 
who were friends and allies to Gelimer----. There Gelimer 
rested with his followers.’’** Although the account of Pro- 
copius does not seem to agree with certain topographical fea- 
tures of the mountain which the French call the ‘““Edough,”?® 
the identification of the “Edough” with the Tlarovav 76  dpos 
of Procopius is beyond doubt. This “Edough” is a mountain- 
mass which occupies the extremity of the great promontory 
which juts northward into the Mediterranean between Bona 
and Philippeville. 

As Belisarius was unable to conduct the siege himself, he 
left Pharas, an Erulian, to blockade the mountain and returned to 
Carthage by way of Hippo Regius where he promised safety to 
the Vandals who were suppliants at the shrines and sent them 
to Carthage. 

After besieging the mountain for some time Pharas became 
weary of the siege for several reasons, and especially because 
of the winter season, and made an unsuccessful attack upon 
the mountain in which he lost one hundred and ten of his men. 
After this disastrous attempt he again settled down to the 
blockade and, knowing that the soft and luxury-loving Vandals 
must be suffering intensely from the blockade and from life 
among the barbarian Moors in the winter time, he opened 
negotiations with Gelimer. For a time the Vandal king held out, 
but finally toward spring, overcome by the hardships and hope- 
lessness of the situation, he surrendered and was taken to 
Belisarius at Carthage.”® 

This is the last military event which I have found recorded 
as taking place at or near Hippo with the exception of the 
destruction of the city by the Arabs which is treated in the next 
section. 


24 Procopius, B.V. u. 4. 27 (tr. Dewing). 
25 Fournel, Richesse, I. pp. 31-33. 
26 Procopius, B.V. 11. 4-7. 


Or! 


THE, DESTRUCTION OF HIPPO: REGIUS AND THE 
FOUNDATION OF BONA 


Because of the meager and often untrustworthy character 
of the data, it is impossible to give a full or entirely satisfactory 
account of the history of Hippo Regius subsequent to the 
Byzantine recovery of North Africa for the Empire or to state 
definitely the date of its final destruction or abandonment. 
Furthermore the date of the foundation of Bona is not beyond 
doubt. However, a fairly consistent account of the later history 
of Hippo Regius and of the foundation of Bona can be con- 
structed from the available evidence and the following para- 
graphs represent an attempt to construct such an account. 

The Moor who is generally known as Leo Africanus was 
born in Spain in the last decade of the fifteenth century. He 
went early to North Africa, was well educated, and became a 
great traveller. In the course of his travels he was captured 
and sent to the Pope as a slave; he was subsequently baptized 
a Christian and taught in Rome. He wrote a Description of 
North Africa.1 The section in which he deals with Bona, 
when translated from the Italian version, is in part as follows :? 

“Bona is an ancient city built by the Romans on the Mediter- 
ranean Sea about 120 miles toward the west,* and formerly 
called Hippo, where St. Augustine was bishop; it was sub- 
jugated by the Goths, but was afterwards taken by Othman, 
third Caliph after Mohamed, who destroyed it by sacking and 
burning; and it remained deserted. Many years later another 
city was built in the same vicinity about two miles away, being 


1This work was in Italian and was first printed by Ramusio in his 
collection which is called Navigationi et Viaggi. The original of Leo’s 
work was in Arabic, either in the form of notes or of a full account. 
It has never been printed and the manuscript containing it is now lost. 
There are practically contemporary translations of the Italian into Latin, 
French, and English. None of these translations is entirely accurate, al- 
though the French version by Temporal is much praised and appears to 
have been used by Gsell (Atlas, Texte, IX. p. 7). 

2 Ramusio, op. cit. I. p. 65—incorrectly numbered p. 71. 

3 The expression, cento venti miglia verso ponente, is puzzling as it 
does not connect up at all with the preceding chapters. It seems that it 
must refer to the distance from Carthage. See above, Section 1. 


[ 62 ] 


constructed from its stones and called, commonly, ‘Beld EI- 
huneb,’ that is the City of the Jujubes, on account of the great 
abundance of that fruit which is thereabouts and which the in- 
habitants dry and eat in the winter. This city has about 300 
hearths and is well inhabited, but has few good houses; a very 
beautiful temple is built there by the side of the sea.” 

This quotation contains material which falls properly into 
three categories. The first contains that which deals with Roman 
times, the second that which belongs to the Arabic tradition, and 
the third that which came directly under the author’s observa- 
tion. 

There are two erroneous statements in the part which deals 
with Roman times. The first is that the city was founded by 
the Romans. This statement will cause no surprise when it is 
remembered that after the fall of the Empire, it became cus- 
tomary to attribute to Rome almost any achievement of which 
the history was lost. The second erroneous statement, that Hippo 
was captured by the Goths, is easily explicable on the ground 
that Leo failed to distinguish clearly between the different 
Germanic invaders of Africa.* Such errors need not vitiate the 
rest of the account. 

In that part of his account which deals with Arabic history, 
Leo says that “Othman, third Caliph after Mohamed,” des- 
troyed the city. Othman was Caliph from 645-656 A. D. Ac- 
cording to the accepted history of this period, in the early years 
of his Caliphate, he sent armies into North Africa.® We should 
conclude, therefore, that Hippo Regius was destroyed by the 
Arabs in the middle of the seventh century. 

Before completing our discussion of this passage from Leo 
Africanus it will be convenient to take up several passages from 
certain earlier authors. 

Georgius Cyprius, who wrote in the seventh century, and the 
Thronus Alexandrinus, which is probably from the first part of 
the eighth century, mention a Hippo.® 

The list of Leo Sapiens, (ninth century), mentions Hippo.’ 


4T suspect that Arabic writers were accustomed to call all Germanic 
peoples “Goths,” but am unable to prove it. 

5 See, inter alia, Muir, Caliphate, pp. 210 ff; Fournel, Richesse, I. pp. 
385 ff. 

6 Georgius Cyprius, Descriptio Orbis Romani (ed. Geltzer), p. 34; 
Geltzer, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, II, 1893, p. 26. 

7In Hierocles (ed. Parthey), p. 79. 


[ 63 J 


And finally El Békri,$ who lived in the eleventh century, says: 
“The town of Hippo----is situated----on a hill----which overlooks 
the town of Sebous. It is today called Medina Zaoui. It is three 
miles from the new town and is full of mosques----New Bona 
was walled shortly after 450 (i.e. 1058 A.D.).” The difficulty in 
regard to the expression the “town of Sebous”’ has been dis- 
cussed in the fifth note of Section one. 

To return to the account of Leo Africanus. He says: “and it 
(Hippo Regius) remained deserted.” In view of the three 
passages just quoted we should conclude that this statement 
of Leo Africanus is incorrect, but we should also conclude that 
Hippo, or Medina Zaoui, was no longer standing when he 
visited Bona; therefore it seems not unreasonable to say that 
Hippo Regius was again inhabited after its sack by the troops 
of Othman and that it was finally destroyed or abandoned 
between the eleventh and the early part of the sixteenth cen- 
turies. 

Leo says further: “many years later another city----was 
built from its stones (that is from those of Hippo Regius).’”® 
If to this statement we add the statement of En Noweiri"° that 
after the capture of Carthage by Hassan™ Bona served as the 
refuge of the Berbers, the foundation of modern Bona dates 
from not long before the last decade of the seventh century of 
our era. The difficulty here arises that it is impossible to tell . 
whether En Noweiri is speaking of Hippo or of Bona. I be- 
lieve that the reference is to Bona and that the statement of 
Ibn Haucal in regard to Bona supports this view.” 

To sum up. First, it is probable that Hippo Regius was 
sacked and destroyed by the Arabs in the middle of the seventh 
century, almost certain that it was rebuilt and continued to be 


8tr. de Slane, Journal Asiatique, 1859, p. 72. 

9 The expression molti anni seems to fit the date suggested. The plu- 
sieurs années of the French version does not. 

10 apud de Slane, traduction d’Ibn Khaldoun, Histoire des Berbéres, I. 
Pp. 339; see also Ebn-Khaldoun (pp. 24-25 in A. Noel des Vergers’ transla- 
tion Histoire de l’ Afrique etc.). I am indebted to Prof. A. M. Harmon of 
Yale for the last-named passage and for checking the reference to the 
former. 

11 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. LI. Section IV. 

12 tr. de Slane, Journal Asiatique, 1842, p. 181. “La ville de Bone est 
d’une moyenne grandeur----elle s’éléve sur le bord de la mer et renferme 
de riches bazars.” See also Fournel, Richesse, I. p. 387. 


[ 64 J] 


inhabited until the eleventh century, and quite certain that it 
had disappeared by the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
Second, it is possible and even probable that Bona was founded 
near the end of the seventh century and it is certain that it had 
been founded by the eleventh century. 


oe 


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[ 66 1 


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[ 68 J 


‘ 


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Movers: Die Phonizier. 

Mutr: Caliphate. 

Mutter: Numismatique de l Ancienne Afrique. 

Mutter, A.: Vier sidonische Miinzen aus der romischen Kaiser- 
zeit in Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissen- 
schaften (Wien), Philos.-Histor. Classe XXXV. 
1860. 

PAPENCORDT: Geschichte der Vandalischen Herrschaft in 
Africa. 

Pauty-Wissowa: Real-Encyclopadie. 

Piguet: Les civilisations de l Afrique du Nord. 

SittL: Die Lokalen Verschiedenheiten der Lateinischen 
Sprache. 

Sm1TH: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 

SmitH & Wace: Dictionary of Christian Biography. 

THIELING: Der Hellenismus in Kleinafrika. 

Tissot: Géographie de la province romaine d’ Afrique. 

ZuUMPT: Commentationes Epigraphicae. 


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INDEX 


ACCLAMATIONS, 40-2 
Ad Aquas, 6 
Ad Dianam, 5 
Ad Gallum gallinacium, see Gallum 
Gallinatium. 
Ad molas, 7 
Ad plumbaria, 4 
A Silma, 6 
Ad Villam Servilianam, 7 
Aediles, 28 
African Codex, 44-5 
Agathocles, 56 
Agriculture, I0-I1 
Almonds, 10 
Amsaga flumen, 29 
Aphrodisium, 29 
Aquis Thibilitanis, 7 
Arabic, 17 
Arabs, 15, 63, 64 
Arian Bishop, see Maximinus 
Armascla flumen, 6 
Armenians, 13 
Armoniacum flumen, 5 
Arms, 14 
Ascours, 31 
Atlas, The Lesser, 1 (Note 2) 
Audurus, 33 
Augustine, St., 1, 18, 19, 29, 30, 33, 
35, 38, 62 
coadjutor-bishop, 37 
death, 58 
discourse at first Council of Hip- 


po, 43 
at third Council, 54 
ordained, 36 
speech, 39-42 
study of Scriptures, 41-2 
Augustine, Hill of St., 1 
Augustus, 29 
Aurelius, 44, 54 


BARBARAE GENTES, 18, 19 (Note 16) 
Barbary, 9 

Barley, 10, 11 

Basilica Leontina, 53 

Basilica Pacis, 39, 43 

Beld Elhuneb, 11, 63 

Belisarius, 58-61 

Berber, see Libyan 

Berbers, 12-15, 18 (Note 11), 64 
Beef, 11 

Bizerte, see Hippo Diarrhytus 
Blonds, 14 

Bona, I, 9, 10, 11, 18, 62-5 

1. Boniface, 58 

2. Boniface, 59, 59 (Note 22), 60 


Bonifacius, see 2. Boniface 
Bonifatius, see 1. Boniface 
Bulla Regia, 3, 6, 44 
Butter, 11 

Byzacium, 59 

Byzantines, 15 


CAECILIAN, 44 
Caesar, 26 
Calama, 30, 31, 36, 44 
Camels, 10, II 
Cape Bon, 9 
Carraria: 33 
Carthage, 1, 3, 5, 6, 22, 23, 20, 44, 
46-7, 57) 58, 61, 64 Mu 
Carthaginian mercenaries, 57 
Carthaginians, 1, 19, 19 (Note 17), 
23 
Caspaliana, 33 
Castellum Sinitense, 29 
Cattle, 11 
Cavalry, 14 
Cereals, II 
Church of Peace, see Basilica Pacis 
Church property, 54 
Cicisa, 6 
Cigisa, see Cicisa 
Circumcellions, 19 (Note 21), 37 
Cirta, 2, 3, 7, 20, 31, 58 
Civitas, 28, 30 
Crzane33 
Climate, 9 
Cluacaria, 6 
Clucar, 6 
Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Afri- 
canae, see African Codex 
Hii 19, 20 (Note 27), 22 (Note 
2 
Colonia, 28, 29, 30 
Coral, 11 
Councils of Carthage, 35, 41, 44, 45 
Councils of Hippo Regius 
first, Augustine De Fide et Sym- 
bolo, 43 
Breviary of canons, 46-53 
‘Canons (from African Codex), 


45 
Church discipline, 43 
Epitome of canons, see Brevi- 
ary 
Plenarium totius Africae con- 
cilium, 43 
Proceedings, 46 
second, 53 


third, 44, 53-4 


Exel 


Council of Nicaea, 41 
Council of Numidia, 41 
Cows, II 

Cresconius, 46 

Cullicitanis, see Culucitani 
Culucitani, 4 

Curiales, 28 

Cyrenaica, 16, 29 


DAMASIPPUS, 57 : 

Dates (fruit), Io 

Decuriones, 28 

Dialects, 18 

Donatists, 19 (Note 21), 36, 37, 52 
Drought, 9 

Duumviri, 28 

Duumviri Quinquennales, 28 


EASTER, 44, 45, 46 
Eastern Churches, practices of, 36 
Ebn Khaldoun, see Ibn Khaldoun; 
Ecclesiastical discipline, 43, 46, 54 
Edough, 31, 61 
El Békri, 2, 10, 64 
Elefantaria, 6 
Elephants, 10, 14 
Empire 

Byzantine, 25 

Carthaginian, 24, 25 

Roman, 24-8 
En Noweiri, 64 
Epigonius, 44 
Episcopus primae sedis, 44 
Eraclius, see Heraclius 
Ethiopian, 17 
Eumachus, 56 


Fauna, see Hippo Regius, fauna of 
Faustinus, 36 

Fedjoudje, 31 

Fetzara, 3, 31 

Fidentius, 35 

Figs, 10 

Fish, 11 

Flamines Augustales, 28 

Flax, 11 

Flora, see Hippo Regius, flora of 
Fruits, 10, II 

Fussala, 31, 33, 34 


GALLUM GALLINATIUM, 5 
Gardens, II 

Garrison, 30 

Gegetu, 7 

Geiseric, 58, 50 

Gelimer, 59, 59 (Note 22), 60, 61 
Germaniciana, 33 


Germanic invaders, 63 
Getulians, 13 

Gharf el Artran, I, 2 
Gippi, 33 rae 
Gizeric, see Geiseric 
Gladiatorial shows, 2 
Gold, 14 

Gothic, 21 

Goths, 62, 63 

Grain, 14 

Greek, 17-21, esp. 20-1 
Greek influence, 20 
Greeks, 13, 15, 16, 21 
Greek sphere, 15-16 


HAMILCAR, 57 
Hannibal, 19 (Note 17) 
Harems, I5 
Hasna, 733 
Hassan, 64 
Hebrew, 18 (Note 15) 
Hellenism, 16 
Heraclius, 38-42 
Hercules, 13 
Hiempsal, 13 
Hippo Diarrhytus, 3, 5, 22, 22 
(Note 1), 26, 29, 56, 57 
Hipponensis, 23 
Hipponeregienses, 23 
Hipponiensis, 23 
Hipponienses (Hipponenses) regii, 
23 
Hipporegii, 23 
Hippo Regius 
capture by Eumachus, 56 
civitas, 28 
colonia, 28 
councils, see Councils of Hippo 
Regius 
destruction, 59 ff. 
dioecesis Hipponiensis, 26 
etymology of, 22 
fauna, I0-II 
flora I0-II 
foundation, 23-4 
harbor, 2 
imperial domain near, 31 
importance, 26 
Libyan settlement, 2 
municipium, 28 
oppidum, 28 
products, 10-11 
rainfall, 9 
regio Hipponiensis, 26 
roads, 2-8 
senate, 28 (Note 10) 
siege by Vandals, 58 
situation, I 
synod, see Synod of Hippo 
temperature, 9 


aga a 


territorium, 31 Meat, I1 


topography, 2 Mechta el Agareb, 3:1 
unhealthy, 2 Medes, 13 
wealth, 10-11 Medina Zaoui, 64 
Hippone Zarito, see Hippo Diar- Megalius, 36, 44 
rhytus Memblone, 5 
Honey, II Membro, 5 
Honoratus, 44 Milevum, 3, 40 
Horses, 11, 14 Milk, 11 


Hyppone Regio, see Hippo Regius Monuments, I5 
Moors, 15, 46, 61 


Muharur, 4 
Inn HAUCAL, II, 64 Municipium, 28, 29 
Ibn Khaldoun, 18, 64 (Note 10) 
Imperial domain, 31, 33 
Infantry, 14 NARAGGARA, 7, 8 
Inscriptions, Libyan, 18 Nedibus, 4 
Ipponte diarito, see Hippo Diar- Negroes, 16 
rhytus Nicene Profession of Faith, 46 
Iron, 10, I1 Nomades, 13 
Islam, 27 North Africa 


description, I 
races, 12-16 


Jews, 16 nations, 15 

Juba I, 26 Notaries, 40 

Juba II, 20 Novis Aquilianis, 6 

Jujubes, 11, 63 Numidta;-13;) 22,25, 26,.27, 34, 36, 
44, 58 


Numidians, 13-15 
KHAREZA, 3 
Khelidj, El, 2 


OpIANA, 6 
Olives, 10 
LAELtus, C, 10, 57 Onellaba, 6 
Latin, 17-21, esp. 21 Oppidum, 28 
Leo Africanus, 11, 62-4 Oracles, 15 
Leontius, 35 Othman, 62-4 
Libya, 58 Ouider, 31 
Libyan, 17-19 
Libyans, 12-15, 24 
Literature Papua, 60, see also Edough 
Berber, 18 Paratianis, 3, 4 
Latin, 21 Pasturage, II 
Lucillus, 29 Persians, 13 
Pharas, 61 
Phenician, see Punic 
Macer, T. Fiavius, 32 Phenicians, I, 13, 15, 19, 23 
Macrobius, 37 Phenician wall, 23 
Mago, 19 (Note 17) Picus, 6 
Mapalia, 13 Placidia’ s7 
Mappalia, 33 Plaetorius Rustianus, 57 
Marble, Io, 11 Polygamy, I5 
Marriage customs, 15 (Note 23) Pomegranates, 10 
Masaesylies, 15 Praeses, 26 
Masinissa, 24, 25, 57 Proculeianus, 37 
Masylies, 15 Punic, 13, 16, 17-21, esp. 19-20, 22, 
Mauretania, 26, 44, 46 23 
Mauri, 13 
Maurousioi, see Moors 
Maximinus, 38 Quirina, see Tribus Quirina 
Maxula, 29 


bere] 


RAINFALL, 9 
Regius, 22, 25 
Roads, 2-8 
Romans, 15, 63 
Rusicade, 3, 4 


SAHARA, I 

Saracens, 20 

Scipio, 57 

Sebous, 2, 64, see also Seybouse 
Semitic, 22, 23, 24 

Septimius Severus, 26 


Severus, 40 

Seybouse, I, 2, 31 
Sheep, I! 

Sicca Veneria, 3, 7, 8, 29 
Simittu, 3, 6 


Simplicianus, 52 
Simplicius, 54 
Siricius, 43, 52 

Sitifi, 44 

Sittius, 57 

Spain, 57, 60, 62 
Spanianum, 33 
Stephanus, 30 
Stephen, St., 33 
Strabonianensis, 33 
Sublucu, see Sullucco 
Subsana, 33 

. Suffetes, 24 
Sullucco, 4 

Synod of Hippo, 38-42 


TABRACA, 3, 5 
Tacatua, 3, 4 
Tagaste, see Thagaste 
Teglata, 6 
Temperature, 9-10 
Territorium, 31 
Thabarca, 31 
Thacora, 7 

Thagaste, 3, 8 
Theogenes, 35 
Theudis, 60 

Theveste, 32 

Thiava, 33 
Thuburbominus, 3, 6, 29 
Thuraria, 6 

Tipasa, 3, 7 
Torquatus, 57 


Tribes, see Masaesylies and 
Masylies 

Tribus Quirina, 30 

Tricamarum, 60 

Trigetius, 59 

Tripolis, 47 

Tubunae, 46 

Tuburbi, see Thuburbominus 

Tuburbo Minus, see Thuburbo- 
minus 

Tulliense, 33 

Tuna, 5 

Tunisa, 5 

Tuniza, 3, 5 

Turres, 33 

Tuscan Sea, 60 

“Twenty Martyrs,” 35 


Usus FLUMEN, 5, see also Seybouse 
Urgi, 33 

Uthina, 29 

Utica, 3, 5, 57 


VALERIUS, 36, 37, 41 
Vandals, 10, I5, 21, 25, 26, 57-61 
Vasidice, 7 
Vegetables, 10, 14 
Verbalis, 33 

Veterans, 29 (Note 11) 
Vico Augusti, 6 

Vico Iuliani, 7 
Victoriana, 33 

Villa Regis, 46 

Vine, 10 

Visigoths, 60 


WALNUTs, I0 
Warfare, 14 
Wars 
Civil, 26, 56, 57 
Hannibalic, 57 
Jugurthine, 26 
Punic, second, 10 
third, 25 
Wheat, 10, II 
Wine, 14 
Women, I5 


ZACA, 4 


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